How Much Time Do Flights Spend On The Tarmac?

I’ve written about several posts recently about planes spending an obscene amount of time on the tarmac, occasionally without AC or with overflowing sewage. But how often does something like this actually happen?

According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, 0.0005 percent of flights, or 36 out of 7.2 million, experienced tarmac delays of over five hours last year. Not too bad; about the same chance as being struck by lightning. Looks like the airlines are actually doing astonishingly well.

Except that the statistics are grossly inaccurate. It turns out that there are several loopholes to reporting delays. For example, if a flight is diverted to or from another airport, it is reported as “diverted” not delayed. If the flight ends up being cancelled, it is reported as “cancelled”, not delayed. And there are a few more. Representative Jean Schmidt estimates that when this loophole is closed, the actual number could go up tenfold. Even then however, a 0.005 percent chance isn’t that bad. I just wish they would give us more peanuts.