For Chicagoan Tony Hiller, flying t...

For Chicagoan Tony Hiller, flying to behold his grandmother in Washington, DC took couple days. When American Airlines canceled his flight from O'Hare Airport to Reagan National Airport forward July 20, a day when many flights were canceled, the airline told him it couldn't assure him another seat for four days.

"I was stunned" he says, "but an of the other passengers went completely ballistic."

American told passengers the airport would provide low bedsteads for an overnight stay if necessary. Instead, Hiller went family circle and the next day caught a Southwest flight from Midway Airport to Baltimore- Washington Airport.

Hiller is an example of being thumped -- an increasingly common riddle The government just reported that airline passengers in the U are getting shocked off flights more frequently than at any time in the last six years.

one 16,300 passengers were bumped against their wishes in the April-June quarter, a rate of 112 passengers for 10,000. That rate is one-third higher than a year earlier. The airlines' rate of what the U Department of Transportation calls "involuntary denied boardings" was the highest since the same quarter in 2000

LATE ARRIVALS ALSO UP

In all, the DOT said, airlines blowed about 185,000 passengers during the last quarter, also up from the year-ago quarter. mostly volunteered to give up their seats.

The worsening puzzle with bumping reflects the intensifying push from airlines to fill a greater percentage of seats. Grappling with soaring travel demand, continuing financial vexed questions and record high fuel prices, airlines are filling planes fuller to maximize ticket receipts while holding down operating outlays No. 1 American Airlines filled a record 87 percent of its seats last month while Delta and Continental filled 85 percent of seats during July That means many flights were sold not at home or oversold.

Southwest Airlines facultyed nearly 32,000 passengers voluntarily or involuntarily in the quarter, more than any other airline. unless the Dallas-based discount giant also carried more passengers than any of the 19 airlines screened in the DOT report.

According to the DOT report, the percentage of delayed and canceled flights also increased from a year earlier. More than 25 percent of all domestic flights in June arrived late, defined as 15 minutes or more against schedule.

Summer 2006 is shaping up as the greatest in quantity troublesome for airline passengers in years, in part because of unexpect question s During the week of July 16 recent York City suffered a power outage, and Tropical Storm Beryl impureed up flights from New York to recently made known England. On July 26 and July 27 a Northwest Airlines computer glitch delayed more than 2700 flights.

The worst U airlines for being endowmented involuntarily were Atlantic Southeast, Mesa: Comair: Alaska and Continental.

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

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