CONSUMER REPORT, 1st QUARTER 2008
The Association of European Airlines has released its members’ punctuality and baggage-delivery figures for the period January-March 2008. Twenty-nine AEA member airlines have provided punctuality data, and twenty-eight contributed baggage figures.
Important note: For administrative purposes, the Consumer Report will henceforward be published twice a year, covering the Summer (Apr-Oct) and Winter (Nov-Mar) timetable seasons.
For the first quarter, the number of bags delayed per 1000 passengers was 15.5, almost unchanged from the 2007 figure of 15.4.
Regarding punctuality, short-haul services showed a marginal improvement, with 80.4% of flights departing within 15 minutes of schedule compared with 79.3% in the corresponding period of 2007. Long-haul punctuality deteriorated very slightly, to 68.3% of departures in 2008, from 68.7% in 2007.
Punctuality and baggage delivery are not unconnected. A transfer passenger connecting at one of Europe’s network hubs, whose inbound flight is slightly delayed, can expect that every effort will be made to ensure he catches his onbound flight. As a rule, airport baggage systems do not have the same propensity for expedited transfer. AEA notes that the great majority of missing bags are traced and delivered to their owners with a minimum of delay.
The report is based upon a voluntary commitment by the members of the Association to provide consumer information according to a set of commonly defined standards. Any similar statistics reported by airlines who are not part of the AEA Consumer Report should not, under any circumstances, be construed as representing a fair comparison with the figures presented herein. AEA cannot guarantee the accuracy of such figures and indeed has reason to believe that they may represent entirely different performance criteria.