Fewer delays expected for holiday travel

— -- Thanksgiving holiday fliers will face packed planes this week, but there's one piece of good news: Flight delays have fallen sharply this fall.

Schedule reductions by financially struggling airlines combined with government efforts to ease congestion at New York's airports seem to have worked, according to industry and government officials and outside experts.

Travelers have better odds of smooth sailing than during recent Thanksgiving holidays — though weather, the primary cause of delays, could still gum up the works at the busiest hubs.

From Sept. 1 through Nov. 17, flights arrived more than 15 minutes late 17% of the time compared with 21% for the same period last year, according to FlightStats, an aviation data company. In 2006, 26% of flights were late over the same period.

This past September was the eighth-best month for on-time performance since the federal Bureau of Transportation Statistics began tracking the data in 1995.

Improvements were more significant for longer delays. The rate of flights late by 45 minutes or more fell 20% compared with last year.

"The drop in delays has been expected because of the slowdown in activity in the system," said John Hansman, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Passenger flights at the nation's 36 largest airports fell 6.4% this fall compared with last year, according to FlightStats.

Even small reductions in flights at congested airports can improve on-time performance because tardy flights have a chance to catch up.

"I think as we see more drawdowns, we'll see some further reduction in delays," said Basil Barimo, vice president of the Air Transport Association, a large airline trade group.

Even the airports with the most delays — Philadelphia and the three near New York — improved. Delays at New York's LaGuardia fell 18%, while the other three showed modest improvements.

Last spring, the government reduced the flights allowed per hour at New York's airports. From May through August, departures more than an hour late fell by 24% at John F. Kennedy International, a sign the government efforts are working, FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said.