PHOENIX, AZ – Despite growing issues with commercial flights having high delay rates, Phoenix has been ranked one of the top metro air travel areas to have on-time arrivals.
According to a Brookings Institution report of air travel in metro areas, the Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale area ranked seventh-best on the list with an on-time arrival rate of 83.1 percent.
You can see the full list of rankings at the bottom of this page.
The ranking is a result of a nationwide analysis of the traffic in “air corridors,” or specific flight paths between metro areas, and the amount of flights delayed during a 12-month span.
Results from the report showed a national average of an hour delay among flights in 2009.
The New York metro area ranked the worst on the list with an on-time arrival rate of only 66.3 percent, while the Salt Lake City metro area had the best rate of 86 percent.
Many of the air corridors that reportedly created the most traffic congestion were mainly short travel routes that were less than 500 miles in trip length and responsible for 42 percent of overall air flight travelers.
Among those corridors that were delayed was Phoenix to Los Angeles.
“The short hauls are the most taxing in the air transit system,” said Adie Tomer, the co-author of the Brookings report. “They generate the largest amount of pollutants per mile, are also the most energy intensive per mile, and they create the greatest stress on airport infrastructure.”
The report also specified certain solutions to the growing problem of flight delays like gearing flights to land during non-peak hours.
“On-time performance has improved recently because the number of people flying is at its lowest point since 9/11,” added Tomer. “But as the economy bounces back, air passenger levels will grow, and on-time performance will likely resume its decline.”
Listed below are some key numbers from the Brookings Institution report entitled:
Expect Delays: An Analysis of Air Travel Trends in the United States.
