Sitting on the Runway Emitting CO2

2007 was a terrible year for delayed flights. Not only were the passengers infuriated, but the delays cost the airlines and passengers $41 billion, not to mention increasing the emission of greenhouse gases while planes sat on the runway. This from a new report by the Joint Economic Committee of Congress.

Here are some startling statistics from the report:

• The total cost of domestic air traffic delays to the U.S. economy was as much as $41 billion for 2007 including higher airline operating costs, lost passenger productivity and time, and losses to other industries.
• Delayed flights consumed about 740 million additional gallons of jet fuel totaling $1.6 billion extra in fuel bills.
• Passengers were delayed by a total of 320 million hours, when accounting for padding in airline schedules. Almost 20 percent of total domestic flight time in 2007 was wasted in delay.
• Flight delays were longest during summer vacation months. Flight delays during the months of June, July and August averaged approximately 414,000 total hours of delay per month. Flights during December – the height of holiday traveling – totaled almost 438,000 hours of delay.
• Seventy-eight percent of flight delays in 2007 occurred before take-off, with 58 percent at the gate, and 20 percent during the taxi to the runway.
• 94 percent of all flight delays were caused by other flights arriving late, national system delays, or air carrier delays (less than six percent of delays were due to security or extreme weather).