Originally Posted by
coswellnc
All things being the same, wouldn't weather and ATC affect all traffic leaving that facility? I would assume these delays cancel each other out because on that given day all carriers would be experiencing the same delays from that point of origin.
Reasonably true, especially if you throw time of day into the mix.
However, the DOT O/T statistics are for all reported airports combined (the number you see in the media) or for 31 specific airports combined that the airlines are required to report (both numbers are in the DOT reports). So the O/T percentage that makes the media are not for a single specific airport, although that data is in the DOT report for the 31 required airports).
Of course, you can go to the actual DOT report and compare how different airlines performed at any one of those 31 airports.
Now, why I said "Reasonably true" - it's impossible to separate downline factors that affect departure delays at hub airports. Take PHL and comparing O/T departure stats for US and AA. A much higher percentage of AA's flights are going to one of their hubs than is the case for US flights to that same airport. So bad weather in DFW, for example, would impact AA's O/T stats for PHL departures more than it would US. Conversely, if CLT or PHX were having delays it would impact US' PHL O/T departure stats a lot more than AA's.
Jim