Originally Posted by
transportbiz
We can all hope, but the initiatives they outline in the article don't seem like they will help much, when the issues seem to stem more from labor and union relations than anything else.
After reading the PR blurb, I am afraid those measures will not succeed in achieving DL type performance. Slowing down boarding so passengers in danger of misconnecting may make the flight?? What kind of solution is that? (apart from an indirect admission of a systemic problem).
A lot of what DL does is fairly public knowledge. Spare parts, for instance, having them at more stations so you don't sit for 4 hours waiting for that pump to arrive from IAH or SFO. Spare parts are significant investment and anti Hunter Keays mindset, since they sit around until needed and many have lifetimes, which may expire before being used.
Increase predictive maintenance, again hard for a purely accounting mindset to accept..."you want to replace a part that hasn't failed, isn't it perfectly good?"
Last time I checked UA's balance sheet there has actually been a decline in aircraft fuel, spare parts and supplies (hard to figure out how much is fuel which obviously has declined in the first quarter 2015, but I believe they basically purchase fuel on a daily basis and then burn it so it is not a large part of their current assets)