NEW YORK (AP) — The government says the number of long delays in July involving planes stuck on airport tarmacs was more than the previous eight months combined.
Twenty eight planes were stuck on the ground at U.S. airports for more than three hours that month, the height of the summer travel season. Eighteen of those planes were operated by U.S. carriers.
Sixteen of the flights were going in or out of Chicago O'Hare on July 13, a day of severe thunderstorms.
The last time there were more three hour delays in a single month was October 2011.There was just one long delay last July.
Overall, flights were less on-time in July than they were in both June 2012 and July 2011. United, which has a base in Chicago, had the worst on-time rate.
