The New York Times reports that airline industry statistics that show average delays for flights and airlines don’t account for passenger lateness due to missed connections. If that’s figured in, the average delay time jumps up 66%.

This isn’t a shock to me. Several times I’ve missed connections in Memphis by 30 minutes and have been required to stay the night in Memphis. Given a choice, I don’t fly Northwest if I can help it. I’ve not been challenged too hard by my corporate travel agency if I deny the cheapest fare due to “routings/times”. :)

I don’t fly if I can drive somewhere in 6-7 hours. The flexibility offered in leaving a location whenever I want makes up for waiting for the flight, getting there two hours in advance, flying, waiting an hour for luggage and rental car, dropping off rental car, et cetera. There’s no point flying to Pittsburgh from Columbus to visit our location in Homer City, PA.

If airline performance were to dwindle I suppose I would open that driving time window a little bit. Given that I’m looking at the Rockies, the West Coast, and Canada in the next year and a half, I’ll probably still be flying planes. Amtrak doesn’t serve Columbus, OH. :)