Air passengers slam NYC airport delays

Randy Copeland's first rule for flying is to avoid Kennedy Airport.

The entrepreneur who jets around the world selling tablet computers said connections through Kennedy are often delayed, upending appointments at his destination and costing him money.

"This is the worst airport in the world," said Copeland, 48, of Richmond, Va., as he sat underneath a leaky roof Thursday in the Delta Air Lines departure area, having broken his rule to take a flight to Hong Kong via Tokyo.

Passengers interviewed Thursday said flight arrival and departure times are virtually meaningless at New York City's airports, where more than a quarter of all flights are delayed, according to a new federal report. The U.S. Department of Transportation inspector general's report said rules imposed two years ago haven't helped the problem, especially during bad weather.

It has hurt travelers such as Dave Reineman, 39, who rushed to Kennedy for his flight home to Milwaukee, arriving four hours early.

"I didn't want to take any chances with long lines or the weather," Reineman said. "There are always delays when the weather is bad."

Brijraj Singh, 71, a retired English professor from Kew Gardens Hills, waiting for a flight to Pittsburgh, said his air travel plans are delayed so often that he has come up with his own definition of "on time."

"The time with the airports is always very approximate," Singh said. "When they say a plane takes off at noon, and it takes off at 12:30, I now consider that on time."

Kathleen Hunter, 51, of Syracuse, who flies between her home and New York City several times a year for her job as a health insurance executive, said her flights are often delayed and she has been stranded downstate twice in the past year by cancellations.

"It's aggravating," Hunter said.

She said she tries to fly in the morning, when she believes there are fewer delays.

"It gets worse later in the day," Hunter said. "By the afternoon, all bets are off for your plane being on time. The worst thing is when there's bad weather. The airlines won't accommodate you and you're stuck in a hotel in New York."

With Maria Alvarez