BIA lands last in U.S. airports’ on-time flights

BANGOR – Bangor International Airport ranked last among stateside airports in both on-time arrivals and departures for the month of June, according to statistics released this month by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

In June, only 38.2 percent of the 319 reported flights into the city’s airport arrived on time, while 55 percent of those flights departed on schedule, according to the August report.

BIA acting director Rebecca Hupp on Wednesday called the airport’s somewhat dubious distinction – prominently noted this week in consecutive editions of USA Today – misleading and undeserved.

“The story’s more about Boston than Bangor,” Hupp said, contending that frequent delays at Boston’s Logan Airport were largely to blame for BIA’s poor showing. “This is a symptom of a larger problem.”

With roughly 55 percent to 60 percent of Bangor flights going through Boston, according to airport officials, any delays at Logan cause an unfortunate and uncontrollable ripple effect at BIA.

Officials at the Portland International Jetport, where roughly 30 percent of flights go through Boston, said they shared Bangor’s regional woes to a lesser extent.

“It’s an issue,” Kevin Sullivan, the Portland airport’s marketing manager, said Wednesday. “When there are problems [in Boston], that can certainly cause buildups here.”

At the jetport, 65 percent of the 851 reported incoming flights were on time in June, while 75 percent departed on schedule, according to DOT figures. At Logan, 66 percent of incoming flights arrived on time, while 69 percent departed on schedule during the month of June.

Bangor’s June numbers are atypical for the small airport, where on average from April to June this year, just over half of the incoming flights arrived on time, and 65 percent left on schedule, according to the DOT report.

Hupp also noted the DOT numbers do not reflect the total picture, as they include only about one-third of the commercial flights that arrive in and depart from Bangor each month.

Federal regulations require airlines with at least 1 percent of total domestic passenger revenues to report on-time performance data for the 27 largest airports. Data for smaller airports, such as BIA, are reported voluntarily.

To combat delays, Hupp said the airport is working to reduce its reliance on Boston, and has proposed connections to more hubs including Chicago, Philadelphia and Baltimore.

To defray the effects of the “unflattering” portrayal in USA Today – with its 1.7 million circulation – BIA officials plan a letter to the editor and a suggestion that the newspaper, the nation’s second-largest, explore a story on the effects of congestion at major hubs on outlying airports.