Airline passengers paid a record-breaking $1.2 billion in baggage fees last quarter, and with more than 6.4 million Americans expected to travel by air for the holidays, airlines will continue to benefit from hidden baggage check fees, especially with the DOT’s withdrawal of a proposal requiring airlines to disclose these fees. AirHelp, an air passenger rights organization and the leading flight compensation company, looked at data from hundreds of thousands of flights from the 2016 holiday season to help inform what travelers can expect during this busy travel season in 2017.
The top 5 most disrupted routes, along with the percentage of flights that were disrupted:
1. San Francisco to Los Angeles – 52.90%
2. Las Vegas to Los Angeles – 52.37%
3. Los Angeles to Las Vegas – 48.28%
4. Seattle to Los Angeles – 48.12%
5. Los Angeles to San Francisco – 46.02%
Collectively, AirHelp also found that the Friday leading up to Christmas was the busiest travel day, but some airports experienced their largest crowd on different dates. Below were the top 10 busiest U.S. airports during the travel season, with the most crowded date at each location:
1. Atlanta (ATL)– 12/26
2. Chicago (ORD)—12/23
3. Los Angeles (LAX)—12/22
4. Dallas (DFW)—12/22
5. Denver (DEN)—12/23
6. Charlotte (CLT)—12/23
7. Houston (IAH)—12/23
8. New York (JFK)—1/2
9. San Francisco (SFO)—12/23
10. Newark (EWR)—1/2
So far in 2017, based on European law EC261, which requires airlines to compensate passengers for delayed or cancelled flights, travelers are owed over $350 million in compensation from airlines for cancelled or delayed flights. This does not reflect flights disrupted domestically in the United States. More on this year’s travel woes in the below press release.
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