Sunday, November 13, 2011

Oh, Another 'No S*** Sherlock?' Air-Travel List

Never understood why anyone who knows anything about the realities of travel pays attention to these "lists" that keep getting pumped out by travel publications. You know, the lists that portentously inform you of what you already know from common experience.

Like this bit of investigative-reporting genius currently being flogged by Travel and Leisure.

Didja know, gasp, that according to standard Transportation Department data that is widely available and updated every three months ,the airports with the highest rate of flight delays are those that are 1. have the most airplanes taking off and landing and/or 2. Are in places in the country where bad weather is common? (Vegas is on the "worst" list because so much of its increasingly limited flight schedule is to and from the places with bad weather).

(As Yogi Berra said, "That place is so crowded nobody goes there anymore." And by the way, Yogi confirmed personally to me some years ago that he did say that, backed up by his wife, though Carmen Berra said he actually said "popular," not crowded. Here's a link to that exchange with me.)

Anyway, back to the point, the implication of the flight-delay article in Travel and Leisure is that somehow you have a choice in which airport you can fly through, ha ha.

Also, didja know that flight delays are down impressively in general in recent years, and that Kennedy, in general, has done a pretty good job of addressing what would seem to be an unaddressable problem? No? Maybe that's because so much of the travel media is disinclined to go the trouble of actually reporting news.

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