If your flight is diverted, the airline must get you to the destination airport on your ticket or reservation at no extra cost to you. You may be entitled to compensation if there has been a delay. For more information see Your rights: flight delays.
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Although aircraft dispatchers divert flights more so for weather, it is not uncommon for some flights to be grounded or diverted to land sooner because of passengers. Nearly a third of passenger-related issues are due to alcohol consumption.
The time line shows the number of diversions of major US air carriers from 1990 to 2017. In 2017, out of over 5.67 million operations, 12,530 of such flights were diverted.
For domestic flights in the U.S., airlines have to pay you 200% of the value of your one-way ticket up to $775 if you arrive at your destination one to two hours past your originally scheduled itinerary or 400% of the one-way ticket price, up to $1,550 if your arrival delay is longer than two hours.
“It is 'normal' to expect around 1 to 2 percent of flights to be canceled,” said Gary Leff, author of ViewFromTheWing.com. He added that around 20 to 25 percent of flights are late by at least 15 minutes, though it's harder to track the range of how delayed flights are.
Next time you board a flight, just imagine you're putting a $20 bill in the airline's tip jar. Profit per passenger at the seven largest U.S. airlines averaged $19.65 over the past four years—record-setting profitable years for airlines. In 2017, it stood at $17.75, based on airline earnings reports.
In situations where a flight is overbooked, airlines will generally try to solicit volunteers to take another flight in exchange for compensation. This is known as voluntary denied boarding. If there aren't enough volunteers, the airline may have to force people to be bumped off the flight.
This shouldn't cause a problem as passengers are expected to be at the gate 15-30 minutes before and should have boarded the plane at least 15 minutes ahead of the departure time. If you somehow don't make it onboard within these timeframes, the flight can absolutely leave without you.