Flying Out of the Right Airport at the Right Time Can Ease Way for Travelers

It's a busy time to travel. Go to the airport prepared.

Don't fly at night, on Fridays or from Philadelphia if you want the best chance of taking off on time or picking up a passenger on schedule.

These are among the simplest conclusions of a Sun analysis of a year's worth of domestic departures from Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall and three other airports in the region.

Travel is on many Americans' minds, with 42 million people expected to fly on U.S. airlines around Christmas and New Year's. Holidays, like the weather, can play havoc with the rules of thumb -- but flying early is still the best advice.

"Throughout the day, it gets worse," said Darryl Jenkins, an airline analyst from Northern Virginia. "You'd never, ever want to book a last flight out."

About 21 percent of departures from BWI and Washington Dulles International were delayed, according to The Sun's review of Bureau of Transportation Statistics data for the year ending in September. That was slightly more often than the national average of 19 percent. Ronald Reagan Washington National had the region's fewest delays at 14 percent; Philadelphia International had the most at 25 percent.

Philadelphia has troubles because it is in the middle of the Northeast's crowded airspace, an airport spokesman said. Aviation analysts explained other Sun findings this way: Early-morning flights, before 8 a.m., had little to delay them. The domino effect of delays throughout the day made flights after 7 p.m. the worst. The intersection of business and leisure travelers slowed departures on Thursdays and Fridays the most, leaving unpopular Tuesday and Wednesday as the best days on average among the four airports.

The carrier seemed to make a difference, too. With more time on the ground between flights, the traditional airlines had the best records -- markedly better than their regional partners flying the feeder planes to their hubs.

Discounter Southwest Airlines had significant delays at BWI and at its other major airports because it does not use the feeder-plane plan. Southwest flies a packed schedule directly from city to city, making it harder to recover from an early delay.

When things go wrong, planes can "make up time in the air" by using more fuel to fly faster or by catching tailwinds -- something Southwest has proved to be particularly good at. On typical airlines, a flight that leaves late usually also arrives late.

A departure is counted as delayed when it backs away from the gate 15 minutes or more after the scheduled time. Airlines pad schedules to account for congestion, though they keep that to a minimum to squeeze work from the planes.

Most people know December is a busy travel month. But it isn't the worst time to fly. That's the early summer. Jenkins said that if you really hate delays, avoid flying in June and July, when thunderstorms and lots of travelers make for a bad mix.

Discount fares have enticed more people to fly in recent years and are helping to overwhelm the air traffic system, industry analysts say. The share of delayed departures has increased by a third since 1995 nationally. The change was even worse at the region's airports.

In addition to extra flights, airports face new security restrictions in light of the 2001 attacks. One of the most delayed days for flying in the past year at area airports was Aug. 10, when British authorities said they thwarted a bomb plot and U.S. officials restricted liquids on carry-on baggage.

The Federal Aviation Administration said the East Coast is a particular challenge because of its busy airports and crowded air space. Domestic flights compete frequently for space with international ones on the ground and air.

The FAA is working on several measures to improve the problem, including air traffic technology to enable pilots to fly more direct routes, agency spokeswoman Laura Brown said.

Proximity to the nation's capital means tighter security and a swath of Washington airspace that is off-limits to all planes. But Brown said congestion and weather are the main factors in delays.

Airport officials say timely performance matters to them because they know people will drive to a rival for a good deal or an easier trip. And in this area, people have choices. Dulles, National and Philadelphia are all within about 100 miles of BWI.

Philadelphia and Dulles are the big international hubs. BWI is discount central. And National, the smallest of the four, is favored by city workers because it's close to downtown, although federal rules restrict most long-haul flights from there.

A spokesman for the authority that oversees Dulles and National declined to comment on their delays.

At BWI, a spokesman said recent upgrades were made to improve automobile, passenger and baggage flow in and around its terminals. But Jonathan Dean said the airport may be affected by delays at other large airports such as Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International, where Delta Air Lines has a hub and AirTran flies frequently.

Atlanta is among the worst of the nation's large airports. It and Chicago's two airports -- the nation's most delayed -- are notorious among travelers for stalled departures. Chicago's O'Hare International and Atlanta are large hubs to major carriers, and Chicago's Midway is growing fast. And Chicago often has significant weather problems.

In the year ending in September, those three airports, along with Newark, N.J., and Philadelphia, had the most delayed departures among the nation's large airports, with about 25 percent to 27 percent of flights. Cincinnati, Salt Lake City, National, San Diego and Pittsburgh had the least delays, with about 13 percent to 17 percent of flights. Baltimore and Dulles were in the middle of the pack.

"BWI is a low-delay airport," Dean said. "When an aircraft pulls away from the gate, it isn't queuing up with 15 or 20 other aircraft to depart."

The Philadelphia airport is improving the terminal to ease passenger flow and extending one of its shorter runways to ease the backups on the two main runways, said Mark Pesce, an airport spokesman. But the airport can't easily fix one of its major difficulties: location.

"Philadelphia is sandwiched between three New York airports and three Washington airports, including Baltimore, and we're often not given priority in the air space," he said.

Southwest flies from three of the four area airports, and is now the second-largest carrier in Philadelphia.

Whitney Eichinger, an airline spokeswoman, said Southwest constantly monitors for chronically late flights and adjusts its schedule. It pulled out of San Francisco's airport in 2001 in part because of delays and focused its attention on nearby Oakland. Delays are also a reason it left Denver 20 years ago. Southwest returned in January after a new and more efficient airport opened.

In Philadelphia, she said, the airline has added more time on the ground between flights. It departed late 24 percent of the time during the 12 months, but that's average for that airport.

At BWI, where Southwest also departed late 24 percent of the time, it was the second-most-delayed airline.

It's atypical for the company, which had an average delay record nationally during the 12 months. But such delays are not unusual for its top operations such as Baltimore, Southwest's fourth-largest airport. The airline takes off late more than the average from its big three: Phoenix, Las Vegas and Chicago's Midway. Each has more than 200 daily flights. The airline said its high volume at those airports is a big reason for the delays.

The frequency of flights helped give Southwest the distinction of having all 10 of the most delayed flights departing at least once a week from BWI, but poor timing also played a role. The flights all left in the afternoon or evening. The three worst flights -- all departing late six times out of 10 -- were scheduled at or after 7 p.m. to Tampa, Fla.; Norfolk, Va.; and Buffalo, N.Y.

What makes Southwest unusual among carriers at the region's airports, however, is that it had fewer delays when the planes landed than it did when they left. The airline managed this feat because it had the shortest delays to begin with, made up more time en route and often landed at uncrowded airports.

"It's very important; it speaks to being dependable," Eichinger said. "We want people to know we're on time."

The flights from BWI arriving late most frequently all flew to crowded airports, and left in the afternoon or evening. Those were AirTran Airways to Logan International in Boston, ExpressJet Airlines to Newark, N.J., and Comair to Kennedy International in New York.

Across the board, the biggest offender among airlines was American Eagle, a partner to American Airlines. It was the most or second-most delayed airline at all area airports.

Like Southwest, American Eagle has a packed schedule flying in a loop. But it also flies frequently to some of the most popular and congested airports, such as New York's LaGuardia International.

"We give customers a lot of choice of flights, and the downside is one delay early [in the day] affects everything afterward," American Eagle spokesman Dave Jackson said. "I don't want to make excuses, and we're trying to complete as many flights on time as we can, but sometimes we aren't quite dealt the hand we'd like."

Its partner American didn't suffer. It beat the delay averages at each area airport. A spokesman said the trick is good airplane maintenance, baggage handling and passenger boarding.

"It's really important for us to get the first flight of the day out on time," said Tim Wagner, American's spokesman.

Some frequent travelers have, by trial and error, figured out how to game the system by flying at good times.

"I try and leave first thing in the morning and, if it's a day trip, come back on the 5 o'clock flight," said Russ Silber, a Baltimore inventory manager who flew to Norfolk on a recent Wednesday at 6:55 a.m. and often travels to Raleigh, N.C. "I usually go two times a month. I go as early as I can, and I usually try for a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday."

David Castelveter, a spokesman for the Air Transport Association, an airline trade group, said a better air traffic control system would help alleviate delays. The association has lobbied Congress to pay for nationwide use of satellite-based technology that would allow planes to fly more closely together.

"The system of controlling airplanes that exists today needs to be retired," he said. "It was designed in the 1950s; it still requires radio beacons to transmit signals."

Sun editor Mike Himowitz contributed to the analysis for this article.

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