Flight Delays Decline Ahead of Holidays

While flights will be packed during the Thanksgiving travel week, travelers can at least look forward to fewer delays, USA Today reports. Delays have plummeted this fall amid troubled airlines’ reduced flight schedules and government measures to reduce New York air traffic. In early September, flights were over 15 minutes late 17% of the time, compared to 21% in September 2007.

Delays over 45 minutes, meanwhile, fell 20%. “The drop in delays has been expected because of the slowdown in activity in the system,” said an expert; this fall has seen 6.4% fewer passenger flights than a year earlier. Still, now’s the time to be “more aggressive” in fighting delays, he said. “You don't want to be fixing the roof when it’s raining.” (More flights stories.)