Airline Ontime

twaokc

Senior
Aug 19, 2002
336
0
OKC
POSTED: 3:41 pm CDT May 7, 2008
UPDATED: 8:43 pm CDT May 7, 2008


The largest U.S. airlines' rate of on-time flights this past March was lower than in the same month last year but higher than the rate recorded in February, according to the Air Travel Consumer Report released Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

According to information filed with the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), the 19 carriers reporting on-time performance recorded an overall on-time arrival rate of 71.6 percent in March, below March 2007’s 73.3 percent but better than February 2008’s 68.6 percent. Aloha Airlines, which reported on-time performance voluntarily, recently ceased operations, reducing the number of reporting carriers from 20 to 19.

In March, the carriers canceled 2.6 percent of their scheduled domestic flights, the same rate recorded in March 2007 but down from February 2008’s 3.6 percent.

In March, the carriers filing on-time performance data reported that 8.56 percent of their flights were delayed by aviation system delays; 8.87 percent by late-arriving aircraft; 7.11 percent by factors within the airline’s control; 0.93 percent by extreme weather; and 0.07 percent for security reasons.

Weather is a factor in both the extreme-weather category and the aviation-system category. This includes delays due to the re-routing of flights by DOT’s Federal Aviation Administration in consultation with the carriers involved. Weather is also a factor in delays attributed to late-arriving aircraft, although airlines do not report specific causes in that category.

The U.S. carriers reporting flight delays and mishandled baggage data posted a mishandled baggage rate of 6.66 reports per 1,000 passengers in March, an improvement over March 2007’s rate of 7.74 but above February 2008’s 6.39 rate. For the first three months of this year, the carriers posted a 6.81 mishandled baggage rate, down from the 8.05 rate for January-March 2007.

In March, the department received 1,013 complaints about airline service from consumers, down 22.5 percent from the 1,307 complaints filed in March 2007 but 8.2 percent more than the total of 936 received in February 2008. For the first quarter of this year, the Department received 3,121 air service complaints, up 8.1 percent from the 2,887 complaints filed during the first three months of 2007.

Airline On-Time Arrival Pct March 2008
Hawaiian, 94.52
US Airways, 79.13
Alaska, 77.97
Skywest, 77.76
Mesa, 75.76
Southwest, 74.42
Frontier, 73.41
Delta, 71.74
United, 71.66
Pinnacle, 71.46
JetBlue, 70.69
Northwest, 70.14
AirTran, 69.97
Atlantic Southeast, 69.13
Continental, 68.38
ExpressJet, 67.80
American Eagle, 66.40
Comair, 66.05
American, 61.96 All Airlines 71.58

Airline On-Time Arrival Pct Year-to-Date Jan-Mar 2008
Hawaiian, 93.95
US Airways, 78.35
Alaska, 75.88
Delta, 75.75
Frontier, 74.97
Southwest, 74.84
JetBlue, 71.72
Continental, 71.01
SkyWest, 70.87
AirTran, 70.78
Northwest, 69.53
Atlantic Southeast, 69.41
ExpressJet, 69.41
Mesa, 69.12
Pinnacle, 68.14
Comair, 66.73
United, 66.40
American Eagle, 64.38
American, 63.38
Aloha, 94.33* All Airlines 70.91

* Aloha stopped reporting on-time data after February
 
Isn't obvious why we're at the bottom??? PO'd employees would be the first place to start.
 
This smells like a job for Customer Experience Leadership!! No, wait...we should form a Joint Leadership Team to analyze the problem, no wait...let's bring in an outside firm to oversee the Committee Meetings errr...Circle Jerk, yeah that's it!

Let's ignore the problem and maybe it and those annoying passengers will go away!

Imagine the cost savings they could realize if those damn passengers weren't showing up all the time, with those silly ideas about getting from point A to point B safely, on a clean aircraft with all of their baggage...



This company is being run right into the ground. :down:
 
This smells like a job for Customer Experience Leadership!! No, wait...we should form a Joint Leadership Team to analyze the problem, no wait...let's bring in an outside firm to oversee the Committee Meetings errr...Circle Jerk, yeah that's it!

Let's ignore the problem and maybe it and those annoying passengers will go away!

Imagine the cost savings they could realize if those damn passengers weren't showing up all the time, with those silly ideas about getting from point A to point B safely, on a clean aircraft with all of their baggage...



This company is being run right into the ground. :down:

Often times at DFW it seems the delays are caused because of gate management problems. I can't count the number of times we've pulled up to a gate, only to have it occupied by another plane and sat there for 20-30-40 minutes waiting for them to clear out while their were empty gates on both sides. I also have lost count of the number of times that we've pulled up to a gate and sat there for 10-15-20 sometimes 30 minutes because equipment and crews to handle the gates are out of position.

I don't know if AA needs more dispatchers, ramps rats, whatever, but its getting to be a running joke on the DFW-AUS runs. I've been on flights where the FA's have started their safety briefing with the flight information flight time of 33 minutes and an hour of your time sitting at DFW just waiting for something to happen.
 
Often times at DFW it seems the delays are caused because of gate management problems. I can't count the number of times we've pulled up to a gate, only to have it occupied by another plane and sat there for 20-30-40 minutes waiting for them to clear out while their were empty gates on both sides. I also have lost count of the number of times that we've pulled up to a gate and sat there for 10-15-20 sometimes 30 minutes because equipment and crews to handle the gates are out of position.
That occurs nightly at DFW, and is often questioned but no logical answer given by management. 30 minutes is nothing, I've over an hour on a clear night, no weather anywhere and lots of open gates. :shock:
 
DFW's just too damn big for its own good sometimes. They could shut down an entire terminal and it would still be too damn big.
 
Sitting while waiting for the crew to guide us in is a frequent problem at Kennedy too. Does anyone work on the ramp there that can tell me why that happens? I overhear pax says things like "Oh, we must have surprised them" whenever the captain says we are not at the gate yet and that we are waiting for a guide crew.
 
Sitting while waiting for the crew to guide us in is a frequent problem at Kennedy too. Does anyone work on the ramp there that can tell me why that happens? I overhear pax says things like "Oh, we must have surprised them" whenever the captain says we are not at the gate yet and that we are waiting for a guide crew.

Staffing hasn't kept pace with the increase in air traffic and flights over the past few years, so I'm guessing that the ramp is being stretched increasingly thin and some genius in management has decided that less staffing is better than the alternative of more ontime arrivals, increased customer satisfaction, decreased misconnects, increased fleet utilization and happier employees. :down:
 
In order to put this thread in perspective, there is one big question to answer; does the DOT figure for airline on-time rankings include all services or just domestic? If it is the former, than the DOT is comparing apples to oranges...
 
Domestic only, and there are only 30 or so cities for which reporting is required. Some airlines only report the minimum required.

Re staffing... if staffing hasn't kept up with traffic and volume, that might turn out to be a blessing in surprise. If traffic falls off due to higher prices or AA pulls back on its schedule, there won't be as many people to RIF.
 
Sitting while waiting for the crew to guide us in is a frequent problem at Kennedy too. Does anyone work on the ramp there that can tell me why that happens? I overhear pax says things like "Oh, we must have surprised them" whenever the captain says we are not at the gate yet and that we are waiting for a guide crew.
How much fuel is wasted waiting on the ground crews to come out and "marshall" us in?? Not to mention extra wages for the pilots and flight attendants, if the flight is already over the scheduled block time. Seems to happen frequently at night at DFW and late night LGA.
 
Management is responsible for delays. They are paid to manage the system (staff, train, motivate, and lead) and it's obvious that most airline managements are third or forth rate hacks. Yet they are paid huge bonuses.