Are airlines padding flight times to improve on-time performance?

Airline schedule

Erik S. Lesser / EPA

Canceled flights are seen on a video display at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport during a severe winter storm in February 2014. A new study suggests that airlines have been padding the allotted time for flights. Airlines say they set aside as much time as needed to deal with weather problems and tarmac congestion.

Hugo Martin Contact Reporter

About a decade ago, Joe Nolan, a semi-retired electrical engineer from Palm Desert, could expect to hop on a flight at Palm Springs International Airport and arrive in San Francisco 55 minutes later.

Now the flight is usually scheduled for about 90 minutes. Nolan suspects that airlines are allotting more time for each flight to make it easier to meet their arrival schedule.

It tells me that the on-time statistics are worthless, he said.

Nolan might have a point. A study by a British company that collects and analyzes travel data concluded that airlines around the globe have been padding their flight schedules for nearly 20 years.

In the U.S. on-time performance rates for commercial airlines have been on the rise and airline executives have boasted about the percentage of flights that arrive within 15 minutes of their scheduled time.

The study by OAG Aviation Worldwide looked at several routes around the world to conclude that the block times set aside for many flights have been growing since 1996.

For example, OAG looked at more than 1,400 flights scheduled between Los Angeles International Airport and San Francisco International Airport in 1996 and found that no flights took longer than 90 minutes, according to the study. By 2015, nearly half of the flights scheduled between the two airports allotted between 91 minutes and 110 minutes, the study said.

On average, the allotted time for flights between Los Angeles and San Francisco increased 8% from 1996 to 2015, the study found.