In the media today, Robert Milton is quoted comparing Air Canada's on time performance and baggage handling with those of American carriers. Air Canada does very well when compared with this group: their on-time performance is #1, and the number of bags they lose is about the same.

My reaction is that the service and performance of American carriers is quite poor compared to the level of service supplied by major Asian and European carriers. I was wondering if there are any statistics available comparing the performance of airlines around the world. Is my opinion inaccurate because it is based on a very small statistical sample of my experiences on other carriers? Or is it reasonable to compare Air Canada with the American market? (I suppose it is from a marketing point of view, since that's the market Air Canada needs to compete in.)

While i have no data, I personally find the European airlines to have difficulty with on-time performance. The skies are very crowded and so ATC is a problem. Also, there are many airports (FRA, for example) where most shorter flights are all on the tarmac and the pax bussed to the plane. I have even landed at FRA in a 747 and been met by a line of 4 busses! All of this takes time.

As for bags, AC is very good IMO. Only once have mine gone missing, and I had checked in late (15min before departure). The bags were delivered the next day, but I was at least partly to blame.

Here are the figures for last week so you at least have something to compare with. I wonder how long these reports will continue to be published separately?

AIR CANADA:
Air Canada's operational performance for the week of July 24-30:
Rapidairr East on-time departure performance: 65%
Rapidair West on-time departure performance: 63%
On-time departure performance (live at zero): 46%
On-time arrival performance (within 15 minutes of TT, US criteria): 65%
Passenger load factor: 84%
Cargo carried on Air Canada flights: 5,896,987 kgs., down 5% from last week,
down 3% from same week last year.

CANADIAN:

CDN OPS PERFORMANCE FOR JULY 24-30
Shuttle East on-time departure performance: 49.7 pct
Shuttle West on-time departure performance: 60.5 pct
On-time departure performance (live at zero): 40.8 pct
On-time arrival performance (within 15 minutes of TT, US criteria): 60.4 pct
Passenger load factor: 76.9 pct
Baggage mishandlings per 1,000 customers boarded: 6.19.
Baggage mishandling includes CP, CRA and Commuter.

Here is a link Stu where you can find the US comparisons. Still looking for Europe and elsewhere.
http://www.bts.gov/oai/

A Flygirl... Is it possible to contact me via email as I suppose you don't want to post your email, I just needed to ask you something.

Thanks

Empress...you have mail