AIRLINE DELAYS ON THE RISE

From the AP

More than a dozen planes sat on the tarmac for more than three hours in June, the government said Tuesday. It's the second month in a row that the number of three-hour delays reached double digits since a government rule went into effect over a year ago aiming to limit them.

The Department of Transportation said 14 planes were stuck on the tarmac for over three hours in June. There were 16 such delays in May. There were only 20 in the full year before that. The rule threatening millions of dollars in fines for delays of three hours or more was implemented on April 29 of last year.

DOT hasn't fined an airline for violating the rule, because it says that none of the delays was serious enough to justify the big penalties. Nearly all of them were caused by bad weather.

[snip]

June is one of the busiest travel months of the year and it's also peak thunderstorm season.

You do have to wonder the motivation behind this article sine it clearly states that it was the weather that caused these delays.  Yes I've been stuck on planes for a couple of hours on the ground and its not fun but all of the time those delays were caused by weather.