Fresh on the heels of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s 2023 air cancellation report, released earlier this week, the agency on Friday released its October Air Travel Consumer Report, which reflects a continued increase in flight operations and decrease in flight cancellations.
U.S. carriers in October operated nearly 633,350 flights representing a 7.3 percent increase year over year and a 6 percent increase month over month, according to DOT.
Carriers also reported a 0.3 percent cancellation rate for October, lower than the 1.2 percent rate in September 2023 and the 0.8 percent rate reported in October 2022.
The airlines with the lowest rates of canceled flights included Delta Air Lines (0 percent; it canceled 61 flights in October, according to DOT), JetBlue (0.2 percent) and Allegiant Airlines (0.2 percent).
The carriers with the highest rates of canceled flights according to DOT included Hawaiian Airlines (1.7 percent), Spirit Airlines (1.6 percent) and Frontier Airlines (0.7 percent).
Airlines in October handled 41 million bags and reported a mishandled baggage rate of 0.44 percent, which was below both the 0.53 percent in September and the 0.49 percent rate in October 2022.
Complaint data continue to be delayed as the department is in the process of revising how it processes such data. The last complaint information DOT shared was in November for the months of March, April and May.
