Chicago Crains United's Performance
Jul 18, 2012, 7:24 am
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Chicago Crains United's Performance
Not that we don't all already know this, but here is a piece about United's performance.
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/artic...or-performance
(Crain's) —
Chicago-based United's flights arrived on time 77.8 percent of the time in May, last place among all carriers, according to the latest Dept. of Transportation data available. Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines Inc., the second-largest carrier behind United, had the best showing among the large, traditional carriers with 86.4 percent of flights on time.
"We've increased ground time within our summer schedule and will be increasing it further in the September flight schedule," a spokeswoman says.
The airline wouldn't say exactly how much it's increasing either aircraft or ground time on a percentage basis. Both fixes will cost the airline money even as it searches for $1.2 billion annually in new revenue and savings as a result of the merger. But the cost of doing nothing is even greater, says Robert Herbst, a former airline pilot and St. Louis-based consultant who runs AirlineFinancials.com LLC.
“On-time performance is absolutely critical to the bottom line because so much traffic is related to connecting feeds,” he says. “Once traffic misconnects, United … has to pay a lot to get them where they need to go: hotels, meal vouchers. But flights have become so full they can't always get them on other flights. It's not just passengers, but flight crews, as well, missing connections. The domino effect is absolutely critical to bottom line.”
“If you get the ground time too short, it can start creating a mess,” Mr. Herbst says. “Adding ground time makes it easier for a flight to get out on time. If get out on time, you're more likely to arrive on time, which is what gets measured.”
United has made the turnaround before. Its on-time performance in summer 2008 was the industry's worst. By late 2009, it was the best among the big traditional carriers.
But the operational challenge is complicated by testy labor negotiations. Labor unions are growing increasingly impatient for new contracts. Pilots from both United and Continental have voted to authorize a strike, although they can't walk off the job anytime soon because of federal labor laws.
“Pilots and flight attendants are not happy, and no one is going out of their way to get flights out on time,” Mr. Herbst says. “They're still going to have issues with this until they get the labor matters straightened out.”
Read more: http://www.chicagobusiness.com/artic...#ixzz20z2irKRn
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/artic...or-performance
(Crain's) —
Chicago-based United's flights arrived on time 77.8 percent of the time in May, last place among all carriers, according to the latest Dept. of Transportation data available. Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines Inc., the second-largest carrier behind United, had the best showing among the large, traditional carriers with 86.4 percent of flights on time.
"We've increased ground time within our summer schedule and will be increasing it further in the September flight schedule," a spokeswoman says.
The airline wouldn't say exactly how much it's increasing either aircraft or ground time on a percentage basis. Both fixes will cost the airline money even as it searches for $1.2 billion annually in new revenue and savings as a result of the merger. But the cost of doing nothing is even greater, says Robert Herbst, a former airline pilot and St. Louis-based consultant who runs AirlineFinancials.com LLC.
“On-time performance is absolutely critical to the bottom line because so much traffic is related to connecting feeds,” he says. “Once traffic misconnects, United … has to pay a lot to get them where they need to go: hotels, meal vouchers. But flights have become so full they can't always get them on other flights. It's not just passengers, but flight crews, as well, missing connections. The domino effect is absolutely critical to bottom line.”
“If you get the ground time too short, it can start creating a mess,” Mr. Herbst says. “Adding ground time makes it easier for a flight to get out on time. If get out on time, you're more likely to arrive on time, which is what gets measured.”
United has made the turnaround before. Its on-time performance in summer 2008 was the industry's worst. By late 2009, it was the best among the big traditional carriers.
But the operational challenge is complicated by testy labor negotiations. Labor unions are growing increasingly impatient for new contracts. Pilots from both United and Continental have voted to authorize a strike, although they can't walk off the job anytime soon because of federal labor laws.
“Pilots and flight attendants are not happy, and no one is going out of their way to get flights out on time,” Mr. Herbst says. “They're still going to have issues with this until they get the labor matters straightened out.”
Read more: http://www.chicagobusiness.com/artic...#ixzz20z2irKRn
Last edited by Youngmiler; Jul 18, 2012 at 9:12 am Reason: Wrong Link
Jul 18, 2012, 8:11 am
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Jul 18, 2012, 8:28 am
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interesting article -- especially the comments about extra aircraft and more ground time
suggest you shorten up the quote or summarize -- quoting a complete copyright article is frowned upon
http://www.flyertalk.com/help/rules.php#q91
suggest you shorten up the quote or summarize -- quoting a complete copyright article is frowned upon
http://www.flyertalk.com/help/rules.php#q91