Just cruising through the DOT June Air Travel Consumer Report for this week’s issue of PBB. Short and sweet? They were pretty fugly.

29% of all flights in the U.S. were late in June, lost baggage reports were up, passenger complaints were up, and more flights were cancelled in June than last June. Or this last May, for that matter.

Here’s the link to the summary page of the results on the DOT site.

While DOT operating numbers for American and American Eagle both have not been anything to write home about the last couple of months, June set a new low for both airlines.

American saw only 57.9% of its flights on-time while American Eagle had only 60.5% flights report on-time.

In all fairness, remember that Dallas, American’s hub, was underwater for much of June.

We’ll see how both airlines do in July.

Meanwhile, while Northwest took all the “flights cancelled” headlines in June — Mesa Air Group actually cancelled more flights in June than any other airline. Mesa cancelled 6.4% of its flights. Northwest cancelled 5.3% of its flights.

We pinged some folks we know at 7 major airlines today. We asked if the new TSA activities were slowing down boarding. 6 of 7 said…..yes.  Some were a little more, er, vocal than others.

The seventh said, “Probably. I really haven’t wanted to find out the details.”

In addition, it appears that severe weather issues did a number on traffic out of Chicago today. As of this posting, there is still a ground stop in place. Meanwhile, there are delays all up and down the East Coast.

Lovely.

Oh, and our link and margin issues seem to have been repaired. Jonathan, the wonder man, figured out the problem. Thank you Jonathan.

For some reason our comment and permalink links are not working for me today. Are they working for you? I just dropped a note to our Movable Type god to see what the deal is.

But I wanted to comment on the comment left this weekend concerning the TSA madness.

Our reader wrote, “Laptop computers and video cameras that use cassettes have long been subject to this policy.” And then he (she) goes on to add, “Small electronic items, such as cell phones, MP3 players, iPods and portable video game systems do not have to be removed from their carrying cases.”

“It sounds like portable DVD/CD players are thus excluded … No?”

First, I don’t know about you guys, but I have never heard a TSA screener say that “video cameras that use cassettes” have to be put in a bin. Secondly, I’ve got more than 20 emails in our box this morning from folks who say, yes, when they flew this weekend, they were told that ALL electronic devices, including iPods, etc., would have to be put in separate bins. Or in one bin. Three people tell me that they were told even their CAMERAS had to be taken out and put in a bin.

Then again, more than one reader also said that liquids in their carry-ons (left because the screeners didn’t say anything about them or demand they be separated) went through the screening just fine and nothing was done. Or said.

If anyone else had an illuminating experience flying this weekend with our friends at the TSA, drop us a line at hhegeman (at) planebusiness.com.

And I quote,

“Indianapolis – The federal government is boarding IndyGo buses in the name of homeland security. Indianapolis is the latest city to jump on board the program which will consist of random checks of passengers on city buses.

It’s a procedure normally seen at the airport: TSA security inspectors and federal marshals going through passengers’ belongings. Now you will see them at IndyGo Bus stops.

“This is a national initiative known as Viper. Visual Inter-modal Prevention Response,” said David Kane, TSA federal security director.



Branching out from airports, buses, trains, even sea ports are included. Viper Teams already conduct random security screenings for public transportation in other cities, checking for bombs or explosive materials.

“But in addition to that, the items that the local authority IndyGo has determined they don’t want in their buses. Guns large knives, corrosives, those types of things,” said Kane.

TSA officials say two knives were casually dropped Wednesday during screenings but nothing threatening was found and no arrests have been made.

The checks are quick: open a bag, empty pockets, and board the bus.

“We get them on and off in a couple seconds as well as making sure they don’t miss their connection as that may be another worry of some of the passengers,” said Ronetta Spalding, IndyGo.

The checks are a preventative measure meant to increase safety. While there is no security threat in Indianapolis, terrorists overseas have sometimes targeted buses, most notably in the July 2005 London bus attacks in which 56 died and over 700 were injured. Those lessons are not lost on security experts here.

“I see a couple of air marshals out here, and so it would serve as a deterrent,” said William Rivers.

The sudden presence of federal agents is unsettling for some travelers.

“It’s making people kind of scared thinking something is going to happen, but when sit and they explain they’re trying to prevent before something happens, it’s cool,” said one passenger.

“Next they’ll be knocking on my door at home,” mused another.

Expect more of this in the future: random checks at bus stops that will also include bomb sniffing dogs and behavioral detection specialists.

After the screenings ended at 9:00 am, the TSA personnel went to the airport to conduct security observations curbside and in the ticket counter areas. TSA officials say air passengers will start to see more federal security throughout the airport, not just at checkpoints.”

Now the test part.

(A) Is this really happening — or (B) is this just an outline for a skit on Saturday Night Live tonight?

Unfortunately the correct answer is (A).

Subscribers to PlaneBusiness Banter can access this week’s issue here.

As a reader just pointed out to me in a note — I left out a very important adjunct to the Jeff Potter departure story.

Frontier Chairman Sam Addoms announced just a few days ago that he was retiring as Chairman of the Board “to spend more time in his community.”

A couple of comments. One, you will not find a more decent human being than Sam Addoms. This industry is not good enough for him.

Second, Jeff Potter is one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet  — but I just don’t think he had the experience going into the position he needed to enable him to grow with the airline.

As a Frontier pilot who I have known for a long time wrote to me not long ago, “You know he’s a wonderful guy, but we don’t have faith in Jeff to take us where we need to go, Sam is  “out of touch” with what is going on at the airline, and we don’t have much use for [CFO] Paul [Tate]. So — we figure if the airline is going to survive, our future is going to have to include a merger. Somehow. Someway.”

Have to admit. It’s very unusual for the two top airline guys to leave at the same time.

It’s quite possible there is finally something bigger going on here. But who would want to go into Denver with the situation that exists there now with Southwest and United Airlines?

Let the rumors begin.

Technorati Tags: airlines, Frontier Airlines

Hey, it’s earnings week. Again. And next week too. Seems like the quarterly earnings period just gets longer and longer each quarter. Maybe that’s just my fried brain talking.

This week in PlaneBusiness Banter, I take a long look at the recent results reported by US Airways, Alaska, Midwest, AirTran, Northwest, and Frontier.

Meanwhile, PBB subscribers can now access PlaneBusiness Earnings Summaries for all other airlines that have reported recently, including WestJet, Mesa, Hawaiian, and Republic. More on them in-depth in next week’s issue.

As I said, look for this week’s issue to be posted tomorrow. (Our Brown Bag Analyst is in Singapore this week, so this will allow him to get us our usual weekly fuel report for this week’s issue as well.)

Talk to you then. If not before.