Us Airways' Rising Performance

USA320Pilot

Veteran
May 18, 2003
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www.usaviation.com
Rising Performance

ARLINGTON (theHub.com) - The increased focus by employees on on-time performance is paying off, with significant month-over-month improvement in April operations from March.

On-time departures were at 58.0 percent, up 17 points, and flights leaving the gate within five minutes of scheduled departure (S:05) were up 15.9 points to 72.5 percent. We also had 80.1 percent of all flights arriving within 14 minutes of scheduled arrival time, and completed 98.9 percent of our departures, a 1.2 point increase over March.

Manchester, England, reported the best on-time performance, with 93.3 percent of its flights departing on time. Other stations with top on-time departures include (in alphabetical order) Allentown/Bethlehem/Easton, Amsterdam, Birmingham and Mexico City.

With 100 percent S:05 departures, Manchester also led in that category, followed by Amsterdam, Birmingham, Madrid, Memphis and Seattle. Manchester also captured the best turn performance, at 93.3 percent. Other stations with top turn time are Amsterdam, Bermuda, Birmingham, Little Rock and Munich.

For fleet launch performance, Birmingham had 96.6 percent of its originating flights depart on time. Other top performing stations include Chicago, Greensboro, Montreal and Seattle. The station with the best first bank performance was LaGuardia, with 84.3 percent of those flights departing on time.

“I am proud of everyone’s dedication, focus and hard work,â€￾ said Donna Paladini, vice president of customer service. “The individual achievements that are leading us to systemwide improvement are to be applauded. Our strong progress in April sets the foundation for continued improvement in the coming weeks and months, as we move to regain our position as the number one on-time airline.â€￾

Regards,

USA320Pilot
 
Come on folks...this is all smoke and mirrors to make Crellin and Paladini look good. Operationally we're a mess, and it's only going to get worse.

Who's fooling who.....and the question is how long will Lakefield put up with these folks.
 
Duhhhhh!!

Any airline can improve performance when they are the bottom!!!

When your last there is no place to go but up!!!

Rocket Scientist you are not..
 
Two indicators were good operationally - fleet launch and turn preformance. The first is probably the least affected by weather of all the performance statistics, while the second is probably next least affected.

For the rest, weather plays an important part (not to minimize the efforts of the employees - just that the effort wasn't any less in March).

And to answer coachrowsey's question - for the month of April thru the 25th PAWOB was 8.3 (mainline) and 14.9 (express) for a total of 23.2 per 1000 passengers arriving without bags.

Jim
 
BoeingBoy said:
And to answer coachrowsey's question - for the month of April thru the 25th PAWOB was 8.3 (mainline) and 14.9 (express) for a total of 23.2 per 1000 passengers arriving without bags.


While the incidence of PAWOBs remains much higher than hoped for, I believe this number may not be accurate.

With all due respect to the posters' excellent contributions to this board, the correct number is somewhere between 8.3 and 14.9 depending on the percentage of passengers flying on mainline versus express.

If 75% of passengers arrive on a mainline aircraft, the number would be 9.95. If 75% of passengers arrive on an express plane, the number would be 13.25.

An even more interesting statistic would be the percentage of passengers checking bags that do not arrive with the aircraft. The last time I checked luggage was returning from FCO in 1998. One went FCO-PHL-ATL-CLT-JAX and the other traveled FCO-PHL-LGW-CLT-JAX. They arrived home together, two days late. :)
 
I have personally witnessed an improvement in PHL with FSA personnel meeting the aircraft on-time on each my last six arrivals. Of those six flights, CSA personnel were waiting on the jetway for the aircraft four out of six times. Vendor cleaners are responsive, they do a good job, and along with flight crew tidying, the cleaning time has been reduced by 50%.

From my observation, the hub schedule depeaking and increased use of runway 17/35 by all operators has reduced delays, although the airport has a long way to go in this area.

All of these issues will improve on-time-performance, but I agree with Pitguy74, "Thanks to the backbone of US Airways; The 'employees'."

Meanwhile, the company has provided PHL with more GSE, it has begun the PHL gate area podium demolition/re-carpeting/re-wallpapering project similar in scope to the program recently completed in CLT (speaking of CLT, there is a new US Airways/Star Alliance wordmark, which has background lighting that is being tested on gate B2). In addition, the podium demolition and gate re-work project will be done in LGA in the not-so-distant future.

The company is spending money to improve its facilities, hire/train new employees, provide severance/"buy out" payments, refurbishing equipment, etc. Tomorrow US Airways will take another big step when it launches its new on time initiative called “All Together On Timeâ€￾ and soon thereafter it will introduce an employee incentive program based on “On Time Performanceâ€￾, all of which will further improve US Airways' operational performance.

Regards,

USA320Pilot
 
AtlanticBeach,

I certainly won't argue the point because I don't know how the numbers are split between mainline & express. I would think it's fairly straight forward if a passenger only flys mainline or only flys express, but when they start on one and connect to the other who gets blamed if their checked bags don't show up with them.

However, the flip side is that the figures (whatever they should be) are quoted per 1000 passengers, not per 1000 passengers who actually checked bags. Those passengers who don't check bags but instead carry them on have zero chance of arriving without their bag. Thus, if you check a bag your chances of it not arriving with you are actually higher than the posted numbers.

Jim
 
BoeingBoy said:
AtlanticBeach,

However, the flip side is that the figures (whatever they should be) are quoted per 1000 passengers, not per 1000 passengers who actually checked bags. Those passengers who don't check bags but instead carry them on have zero chance of arriving without their bag. Thus, if you check a bag your chances of it not arriving with you are actually higher than the posted numbers.

Jim
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I agree. As more passengers carry-on bags based on past actions and press reports, the reported rate of PAWOBs provides a less accurate reflection of current performance.

The other thing that skews this number downward, especially during vacation times is that a family of four might check-in and have all luggage listed under one passenger's name. All bags might be delayed, but would only be reported as one PAWOB.

While this information (% of passengers checking bags that do not arrive) is not released to DOT, the company should track this data internally to determine the actual state of operational performance.
 
i guess this makes you look beyond the 191 million 1st qtr loss.......everything is coming up roses and lolly pops.... :blink:
like lyndon johnson once said....i see light at the end of the tunnel.....
he was right but didn't realize it was a train coming the other way....
 
PineyBob:

The company is addressing the PHL baggage problem, along with other stations, and it's a priority too. You must have a beginning to fix the problem and April is the first month of the next "six to twelve months". The company is making progress in this area and it will take time to get it to industry leading standards.

A few years ago the company had industry leading DOT Matrix performance, which enabled the airline to win the University of Nebraska and Wichita State University Airline Quality Ratings (AQR). Why? Because of line employees performance.

With the new labor contracts in place and corporate emphasis on operational performance, I have little doubt that US Airways' employees, who are the best in the industry, will once again reach the top of the AQR.

Regards,

USA320Pilot
 
longing4piedmont said:
Is there any type of drug testing at US? For pilots?
[post="266182"][/post]​

I'm thinking they must hand out free drugs.