Originally Posted by
channa
That's my point. It's a small number for all airlines. The relevance is how small.
Just because it's a small number doesn't mean it's insignificant or should not matter.
Remember the airlines are moving millions of people each month. Even a small percentage has an impact. That's why you look at rates.
When an airline consistently has one of the highest IDB rates in the industry, that is a very likely indicator that something could be improved. And improvement should be a goal for any business.
You've created another argument for argument's sake. You posted above that they should be focusing on trying to improve their on-time performance instead of trying to reduce the payouts. None of what you've posted here changes the fact that these events happen so infrequently that they just aren't going to impact that number. And that's being generous - I highly doubt that every departure where there is an IDB or VDB situation is delayed because of the process in place.
I've personally a VDB situation on CO where 3 volunteers were identified at the start of the process, payout agreed, and 1 of them was asked to board at the very end due to a no-show. Flight left on time (actually early) and the vouchers were processed after the aircraft pushed back.
That's my personal experience - but I'm not drawing a conclusion from that which says that this is the norm. You are taking your one personal experience and extrapolating that to being a reason behind CO's on-time performance. EWR is a much more significant reason IMO.