Kev,
you can pick out a bad month or even a bad couple of months for any carrier.... just about every carrier has had their time in the cellar.
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Yet, do you realize that in the 12 months ended July 2011 (the latest DOT monthly report), AA, CO, and DL had the EXACT same on-time rate at 78.7 and more than 75% of US passengers flew on carriers who had an ontime rate +/- 2 points of average?
Picking out a single statistic for any purpose, including trying to prove that a carrier has operational problems has to be based on more than a month or two worth of data and also more than a single data point or two.
WN and DL were each in last place in one quarter of 2010 but both managed to jump dramatically since then; for the past 12 months, DL is tied w/ AA and CO for 9/10/11th place and WN is at 12th place, separated by 1/2 of a percentage point.
UA and US both posted higher than average OT results but had cancellation rates 3-4X higher than DL or WN....as you well know, it's not hard to be on-time if you cancel when it won't work out the way you want.
Baggage claims and consumer complaints for DL both dropped dramatically from above average last year to below average this year and lower than its other network peers.
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And your chance of being involuntarily denied boarding on DL is 1/3 of the industry average which is exactly where AA is; and DL's invol denied boarding ratio is beat only by HA and B6 - who doesn't overbook at all.
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As much as you or anyone else would like to believe otherwise, there is no systematic evidence that US airline mgmt teams - at any airline - consistently run a poor operation and do not address problems when they occur, even if it requires money to do so.
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My original point was and remains that any carrier can "fix" their operation if they are willing to throw enough money at it... DL did so this year and the results have been quite dramatic. DL beat its network peers in the most recent month/quarter (depending on the statistic) for every DOT measure.
Of course having money to be able to fix operational problems helps, but evidence shows that even in BK, airlines have not let their operation fall apart.
wt
"employees know that holding on to customers during BK might make the difference in whether their company survives or not."
What makes you think that employees at AA would care any more if AA files bk? You know that if AA files bk that management will still get their bonuses while labor takes it further up the exhaust pipe.
Simple question.
WHY should we care?
What makes ANYONE think that if AA files bk that once we exit bk things will be any different? After all the management team in place that lied to us with "shAAred sAAcrifice" will still be here. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.
Labor could work for free and AA management would still find ways to blame labor for the company losing money.
Because, Ken, the vast majority of people really do want a job and will put forth the effort to save their company and their job when push comes to shove.
If you go back and look at OT performance for each of the 4 airlines that filed in the past decade, they all had an improvement in the year or two after they filed for BK.
Sure, the companies cut capacity but employees DID NOT take out their frustration w/ the BK process on the operation.