Last year, flyers arriving at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport braced to frequently face delays, with over one-fifth of flights running behind schedule. Reports by the U.S. Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics revealed a 21.9% delay rate among the almost 93,000 flights at AUS in 2023. Despite the less than ideal figures, the stats show a marginal improvement from the previous year, with an uptick in on-time arrivals to 76.7% from 74.6% in 2022, as reported by KXAN.
JetBlue Airways bore the brunt of customer ire, with over a third of arriving flights delayed by at least 15 minutes. Hawaiian Airlines, conversely, soared above the rest with an 82.9% on-time arrival record, and uniquely reported zero cancellations in 2023, according to KXAN. As for cancellations, Republic Airways, which operates as American Eagle, Delta Connection, and United Express, led with 3.5% of all arrivals called off last year.
This propensity for disruptions came to a head on a chaotic Friday morning at the airport. When traveler Austin Goldberg, anticipating a smooth journey, arrived at AUS well ahead of his flight's departure, he was met with the unforeseen and not-so-pleasant surprise of a Southwest Airlines ticketing mishap that snowballed into airport-wide delays. The domino effect left passengers, some waiting as long as three and a half hours, missing flights, and venting frustrations across social media. One tweet described the security lines as "getting on a ride at Disney World."
With the airport's baggage handling system briefly offline, passengers experienced "cascading effects" on their travel plans. In a statement to the Austin American Statesman, airport spokesperson Bailey Grimmett conveyed that a new baggage system and checkpoint improvements are in the pipeline, intended to alleviate such issues in the future. Conversely, Southwest Airline's track record with delays is nothing new; the airline saw as many as 170 flights affected at AUS in the twilight of 2022 alone.
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