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Oct. 8--Detroit Metro Airport is one of the best in the country for on-time flight arrivals and departures, according to a report released today by the Brookings Institution.
For the 12-month period from July 2008 to June 2009, 83.5% of arriving flights at Detroit Metro were on time, the fourth-best performance in the country, according to the report. Similarly, 85.4% of its flights departed on time, better than the national average.
"Whatever they're doing at the Detroit airport authority, they're doing it well," said Adie Tomer, the study's lead author. "On-time performance is getting better."
He said that usually busy hub airports in cold climates like Detroit don't fare that well when it comes to flight delays. The average delay for arriving flights at Detroit was 56 minutes.
The Brookings report examined air travel in large metropolitan areas around the United States. It found that the number of airline flights landing at least two hours late has more than doubled in the last two decades and is expected to rise as the national economy recovers.
Detroit is not among the six cities that Brookings researchers found experience worse-than-average delays for both arrivals and departures. Those cities are: New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Miami, Atlanta and San Francisco.
The study also showed that two of the nation's 100 most-traveled corridors involved Detroit. The Chicago-to-Detroit corridor ranked 53rd in terms of passengers. The Detroit-to-New York corridor ranked No. 59.
Contact KATHERINE YUNG: 313-222-8763 or [email protected]
