Originally Posted by
aerobod
The industry stats indicate perception and reality in the case of OTP are not aligned.
AC has had worse reliability for OTP than WS every month this year and I can’t recall any time in the past 10 years or so that hasn’t been the norm (Covid anomalies excluded). In May 2023 WS was 63rd of 121 airlines ranked by OAG for OTP with A15 at 76.6%, AC was 89th with A15 at 68.9%:
https://www.oag.com/en/on-time-perfo...lines-may-2023
Originally Posted by
cedric
That very link shows that WS' cancel rate is twice that of AC's. I think most people would rather deal with a delay than having double the chance of being cancelled. Especially given the much greater challenge that it is to get rebooked on WS.
My frustration with WS is related to cancellations and how WS is significantly worse at recovering from mainline cancellations. If AC cancels a mainline flight out of a hub, they'll quickly rebook pax, and often add a rescue flight to clear up the backlog in lieu of the cancelled flight (AC2XXX series flight). I never thought I'd praise AC's IT tools, but OCCASIONALLY their online rebooking tool works.
I have plenty of delayed flights with AC, and had a 3 hour delay with AC yesterday. But that's less bad than an outright cancellation. Even if WS and AC mainline cancellation rates are similar, AC seems to be able to get back on their feet quicker with rebookings, occasionally functional IT, and a customer service center that is more reachable and able to resolve issues quicker. And AC is by no means stellar at that.
Sadly, WS seems to be far worse IMO than AC at recovering from cancellations.