Originally Posted by
sltlyamusd
With all due respect, I do not think you can make such a conclusion from a 1.6% difference over a one month period, or even a longer period for that matter. The reason is that on-time arrival performance into a particular airport is influenced by the point of origin for each particular flight. Just because an AS flight arrives late into SEA does not mean the delay is either caused by AS operations or SEA airport conditions. The delay could have been caused by weather in JNU or KTN or SIT or some other city they served. Just like an AA flight delayed into SEA could have been delayed due to thunderstorms in DFW. Also, note that many weather delays are in fact categorized under the "national aviation system" delay category in the Air Travel Consumer Report, so one cannot simply look up the data for JNU and say, oh there were no weather delays since it says 0 flights delayed due to extreme weather. If the weather is "extreme," in most cases the flight will divert or just be out-right-canceled, and they do not list the causes of diversions or cancelations.
Your points are well-taken and I will readily agree that there are external factors that affect on-time performance. However, if we assume that the external factors are, on average, affecting all flights by all airlines to SEA to the same degree, we can get closer to isolating the performance of any one airline. I'm not saying that's a perfect assumption (e.g. weather delays in Alaska may be worse, on average, than elsewhere), but I am saying that there's enough anecdotal evidence (e.g. high frequency of mechanical delays, etc.) that I'm not surprised that Channa's numbers are consistent.
Bottom line, I'm no longer willing to give AS the benefit of the doubt for poor on-time performance and I suspect I'm not alone. I fly a lot on business and I've missed more than one meeting due to an AS mechanical. I'm still a good customer (MVPG in June, 110K miles this year) but when I need to maximize my chances of getting there on time, I fly a different airline.