Delta Leads in Overbooking Flights

If you have a reservation on Delta Air Lines, you may not be sitting pretty, according to data released last week in the U.S. Department of Transportation’s quarterly Air Travel Consumer Report.

Delta bumped 5,519 passengers involuntarily between April and July--or about one would-be flier out of every 5,000. That’s more than twice as many as any of the other top 10 U.S. carriers and almost half the number bumped by the other nine airlines together.

Delta’s showing actually represented an improvement. Last winter, the airline bumped more than 8,000 passengers, quadruple as many as its nearest competitor, United.

Delta officials say the company is installing new computer software that prevents overbooking, but the results won’t be available until the federal agency’s next reporting period.

The carriers least likely to ditch passengers? Northwest and Continental, which left behind fewer than one of every 25,000 fliers in the first half of 1999.