Syracuse airport in bottom 10 for on time arrivals

Not happy to hear this on the news this morning, especialy considering that I'm flying to Dallas in less than 2 weeks.

One of every four flights to Syracuse arrives late — by an average of almost an hour — giving it the 10th worst on-time arrival performance among the nation’s 100 largest metropolitan areas, according to a report released today by the Brookings Institution.

The report, “Expect Delays: An Analysis of Air Travel Trends in the United States,” said 74.6 percent of flights to Syracuse’s Hancock Airport arrived within 15 minutes of their scheduled arrival times during the 12 months period that ended in June. Nationally, 78.4 percent of flights arrived on time during the same period. The average delay in Syracuse was 56.6 minutes, the report said.

Syracuse’s on-time performance actually improved 4.5 percentage points compared with the previous 12 months, matching a recent national trend attributed to a reduction in air travel. But Adie Tomer, a research analyst for Brookings’ Metropolitan Policy Program and co-author of the report, warned that air passenger levels will grow and on-time performance will likely resume its decline as the economy bounces back.

While the national average for all delayed arrivals is now nearly one hour, the number of airline flights landing at least two hours late has more than doubled in the last two decades, with the vast majority of the delays concentrated in 26 metropolitan areas, New York tops among them, the report said.

Syracuse Aviation Commissioner Anthony Mancuso said Hancock’s poor showing in the ranking has nothing to do with anything going on at the airport. He blamed congestion at the major airports from which many of the flights to Hancock originate. He said half of the 60 flights a day that arrive at Hancock come from airports in New York City, Philadelphia and Atlanta — three metro areas that have among the worst on-time arrival performances in the nation.

The New York metro area had the worst on-time performance, with just 66.3 percent of flights into the area’s three main airports arriving on time. Nineteen of Hancock’s daily arrivals — nearly a third of all its flights — come from those three airports. Philadelphia was fourth worst at 73.4 percent, and Atlanta was sixth worst at 73.6 percent. Chicago, from which five daily flights arrive at Hancock, also is known for having lots of air traffic congestion. It had the 31st worst on-time performance in the Brookings ranking, which was based on data from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics.