Yes, we're looking at the same data. I guess I might as well offer my two cents on the subject. The operational issues at AS have very little to do with Menzies. Sure, there might be the occasional 5 or 10 minute ramp delay, but I think what really destroys the operational reliability at AS are these multi-hour maintenance delays. I know ramp and crew delays do occur, but the only "air carrier delays" I have ever experienced on AS were "maintenance related." What surprises me is that AS claims to have several operational spares, yet it's not uncommon to see flights delayed 2-3 hours out of SEA due to "maintenance." Of course, I never want to see AS compromise safety, but I'd really like to see AS reduce the number of 1 hr (+) delays attributable to the airline. I'm wondering what they could do to solve this problem (more overnight aircraft inspections?, more m/x technicians?, improve spare parts inventory?, better coordination between ops, maintenance and CSAs?). If they could improve the fleet reliablity, there would be a lot less confusion among front-line staff with gate changes, equipment swaps, rebooking and the like. Not to mention the potential for much more efficient aircraft utilization.

I think AS could have pretty decent on-time performance (in lower 48 at least) if they could reduce the maintenance delays, and lengthen the turn times and block times on flights to selected busy airports (esp. to PHX, LAS, LAX, SFO). The only strongly delay-prone airports AS flies to in the lower 48 are ORD, EWR and SFO. AS has 4/day to/from EWR, 8/day to/from ORD and about 40 to/from for SFO. AS has about 500 daily flights, so only about 10% of scheduled AS operations originate or teminate in those airports, although that's still enough to mess up plenty of other flights.