December Snow Cost the Airlines

Nationwide, airlines cancelled about 4% of flights during December 2010, due to the severe weather. The Bureau of Transportation Statistics are out and they show that airlines cancelled thousands of flights in December, as much of the country dealt with several severe winter storms.

There were three flights that had tarmac delays over three hours in December, down from 34 in December 2009. The flights were a Delta Air Lines flight from Detroit to Miami delayed 192 minutes on December 12, a United Airlines flight from San Diego to San Francisco delayed 189 minutes on Dec. 27, and a Pinnacle Airlines flight from Detroit to Cedar Rapids, delayed 186 minutes on December 12.

Since the new tarmac rules went into effect there have been only 15 flights with three-hour-plus delays compared with 584 in the same period in 2010. What an incredible difference!