A North Texas-based airline was most likely to lose your bag during the holidays.
DALLAS — This article was originally published by our content partners at the Dallas Business Journal. You can read the original article here.
Flying during the holidays can be nerve-wracking, especially if your luggage is lost or damaged.
There is a lot of stress for workers at airlines and airports as well. Data collected at the federal level provides a peek into these frantic operations, a useful exercise even for those operating in other industries.
FinanceBuzz, a personal finance website, dove into the Department of Transportation data to highlight luggage handling trends from the last winter holiday period, focusing on operations in December 2023.
American Airlines Group Inc. (Nasdaq: AAL) mishandled more luggage than any other major airline last December, according to the DOT’s Air Travel Consumer Report. The Fort Worth-based carrier lost or damaged 60,032 bags out of 9.2 million handled, which boils down to 6.5 mishandled bags for every 1,000.
The carrier’s most commonly used planes are the Boeing 737-800 and the Airbus A321-200. Those hold between 162 and 220 passengers, meaning that on average, nearly one bag was lost or damaged per flight, according to the FinanceBuzz analysis.
American did not respond to a request for comment. The airline was busy early Dec. 24 when it had to briefly halt all flights because of a vendor technology issue, the Wall Street Journal reported. Flights resumed around 8 a.m. Eastern Time.
Dallas-based Southwest (NYSE: LUV) handled more luggage than any other major airline last December, with more than 12 million bags passing through its aircraft. The carrier — famous for its policy of two free checked bags per passenger — mishandled 4.6 bags per every 1,000, meaning passengers had a 1 in 216 chance of having their luggage lost or damaged during travel.
Delta Air Lines Inc. (NYSE: DAL) was the least likely to mishandle customer’s baggage last holiday season. Of the more than 8 million bags handled last December, there was a 1 in 216 chance of them being damaged or lost — a mere 0.36%.
When looking at airports, North Texas aviation hubs performed better than peers in Texas. Among the 50 largest airports in the United States, William P. Hobby Airport in Houston had the third-highest baggage mishandling rate at 1.81 bags per 100,000 passengers, while Austin-Bergstrom International Airport ranked eighth, with 1.29 bags per 100,000 passengers.
Dallas Fort Worth International Airport fell in the middle of the pack, placing 30th with 0.53 damaged bags per 100,000 passengers. Dallas Love Field was 48th on the list, ahead of Oakland International Airport and Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport, which both reported zero mishandled bags. John F. Kennedy International Airport damaged the most luggage, at 2.59 bags per 100,000 passengers.
In contrast with American’s spot at the top of lost/damaged baggage list, it’s worth noting the airline only canceled 0.1% of flights in December 2023, the lowest rate of all major airlines, according to DOT data. United Airlines Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: UAL) followed behind at 0.3%, then Delta at 0.4%. Southwest landed seventh, canceling 0.6% of all flights. Hawaiian Airlines canceled the most flights at 1.5%. Overall, the major airline carriers clocked a total cancellation rate of 1.29%, a stark improvement from the reported 2.7% in December of 2022.
Of the 13.6 million flights on American last December, 5.81% were delayed. The majority of delays were National Aviation System delays, which refers to flight delays related to the overall air traffic management system, not specific to the carrier. More than half of the flight delays were caused by late-arriving aircrafts.
Southwest delayed 5.64% of its 14.6 million flights, largely due to late arriving aircrafts. However, it was a major improvement after a notably difficult winter travel season in 2022. A winter storm caused travel disruptions that canceled 16,900 flights and stranded over 2 million passengers. The Department of Transportation fined the carrier $140 million, the largest penalty ever levied for consumer protection violations.
Airlines saw a massive jump in travel last December, 9.5% higher than the same month in 2022. Nearly 67.9 million domestic passengers and 10.8 million international passengers flew on U.S. airlines.
Carriers are gearing up for another busy holiday travel season this year. American Airlines is planning to service nearly 12.7 million customers with over 118,000 scheduled flights, while Southwest expects to see over 8.3 million travelers across 64,178 flights. DFW Airport is projecting an estimated 4.7 million passengers traveling through its doors from Dec. 20 to Jan. 7, a 2.4% increase from last year’s holiday travel period.