Passengers are experiencing more delays while traveling - both on the ground and in the air VIDEO CNN's Brian Cabell reports on how more flyers mean more travel troubles at Atlanta's Hartsfield and nationwide. Windows Media 28K 80K SEE ALSO Know your rights in case your flight runs out of seats Check in for your flight on time or risk getting bumped When baggage goes one way, and you go another MESSAGE BOARDS Sound off on the message boards: Crowded skies Passenger rights

September 21, 1999
Web posted at: 12:57 p.m. EDT (1657 GMT)

ATLANTA (CNN) -- For the 600 million people who fly in the United States each year, road traffic surrounding the airport is a familiar first sight.

"It took about an hour and 20 minutes to get 15 miles," says one traveler.

Once passengers finally arrive at the ticket counter, there's no guarantee the flight will be on time. Eleven-year-old Tijana Ellis learned that firsthand. An airline representative said her flight home from Atlanta to Newark was canceled. The next one was scheduled to depart at 7:10 p.m. That meant a two-and-a-half-hour wait for Ellis and her grandmother.

Cancellations are still relatively rare, but chronic delays -- flights more than 15 minutes late -- have increased 36 percent nationwide in just the last few months. At Atlanta's Hartsfield International, which handles more passengers than any airport in the country, the average flight is now eight minutes late. Airport officials say in five years the average flight will be 13 minutes late.

"It's just a question of how much delay passengers will tolerate before they decide to tell their airline or their travel agent, 'Do not book me through Atlanta,'" says Mario Diaz, deputy general manager of Hartsfield.

The problem extends across the country. Millions more passengers and thousands more flights are now in the air than just a few years ago because of a booming economy and highly competitive start-up airlines with low ticket prices. Just ask business traveler Greg Carskallen.

"It's more like traveling on a bus as opposed to an airplane now," he says. "You're packed in."

In five years, another couple hundred million passengers are expected to be added to the traffic jams, the crowded parking lots, the long, snaking lines and the wait for luggage.

The complications have some consumer groups demanding Congressional action to smooth the ride. The 'passenger rights' movement gathered steam after a New Year's storm in the Midwest left thousands of travelers -- some without food or working bathroom facilities -- stranded in airports and on aircraft. Consumer groups are demanding measures such as notice of lowest available fares, explanations of flight delays and prompt ticket refunds.

Carriers say they're trying to address the issues with a voluntary plan offered in June by the Air Transport Association, an industry trade group. So far, two Congressional studies have denounced those measures, saying the proposals lack legal backing and make guarantees already required by law.

CNN Correspondent Brian Cabell contributed to this report.