Go Back  FlyerTalk Forums > Miles&Points > Airlines and Mileage Programs > Air Canada | Aeroplan
Reload this Page >

Air Canada ranks dead last among large NA carriers for On-Time Performance, Again

Air Canada ranks dead last among large NA carriers for On-Time Performance, Again

Old Feb 28, 18, 7:37 am
  #46  
FlyerTalk Evangelist
 
Join Date: Feb 2000
Posts: 12,066
I depart YSB and my flights all connect at YYZ. Significant number of outright cancellations to/from YSB, usually weather at YYZ
My delays this year have been ex MAD due to late arrival of inbound aircraft, turn on a 787 was 1 hour 20 minutes. One de-icing delay ex YYZ en-route BGI,delay off
loading BGI for 20 minutes , new ramp set up vs stairs. Delayed leaving BGI due to ATC ,held at gate for 25 minutes. Routine occurrence.
LAS flight delayed ex-YYZ due to mechanical issues (engine power surge while taxiing)and we did arrive close to posted time.
Most of the regional delays from YSB are due to "flow control" at YYZ even though flight is ready to leave ,either on time and or early. Gate issues and space to park aircraft are mounting at YYZ.

This year has been better for me personally to date.
acysb87 is offline  
Old Mar 12, 18, 6:41 pm
  #47  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: YYZ
Programs: Only J via Peasant Points, 777HDPeasant or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance and Narcissism.
Posts: 5,852
Feb Report Update

Would you guess where AC ranked again? (Hint: Last for any major NA airline. )

Jumper Jack is offline  
Old Mar 12, 18, 6:42 pm
  #48  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: YYZ
Programs: Only J via Peasant Points, 777HDPeasant or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance and Narcissism.
Posts: 5,852
Sixth worst airline in the world, barely beating Air India
PFT likes this.
Jumper Jack is offline  
Old Mar 12, 18, 6:49 pm
  #49  
 
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: YYC
Programs: AC SE 1MM, Marriott Ambassador
Posts: 3,374
A lot lower after today.
ridefar is offline  
Old Mar 12, 18, 6:51 pm
  #50  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: YYZ
Programs: Only J via Peasant Points, 777HDPeasant or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance and Narcissism.
Posts: 5,852
Originally Posted by ridefar
A lot lower after today.
Lol maybe they will take the crown for the March report, we will see.
Jumper Jack is offline  
Old Mar 12, 18, 7:58 pm
  #51  
 
Join Date: May 2012
Location: BKK/SIN/YYZ/YUL
Programs: DL, AC, Bonvoy, Accor, Hilton
Posts: 2,845
Originally Posted by ridefar
A lot lower after today.
Perhaps Air Canada will finally become Number 1 at something.
Transpacificflyer is offline  
Old Mar 28, 18, 8:44 am
  #52  
FlyerTalk Evangelist
 
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Canada
Programs: UA*1K, BA Silver, AC35k
Posts: 23,136
Air Canada continued their stellar performance in February 2018 with 52%
Thread can now officially be renamed AC ranks dead last among large WORLD carriers

Graph courtesy of Flightstats
PFT likes this.
rankourabu is offline  
Old Mar 28, 18, 8:45 am
  #53  
FlyerTalk Evangelist
 
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Canada
Programs: UA*1K, BA Silver, AC35k
Posts: 23,136
PFT and DrunkCargo like this.
rankourabu is offline  
Old Mar 28, 18, 12:40 pm
  #54  
 
Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: Vancouver, British Columbia
Programs: BA GGL, FPC Plat, HH Diamond, IHG Amb
Posts: 3,371
There's a fair bit of apples and oranges going on here. Clearly both WS and AC are dealing with significant OTP issues, and the time of year suggests that some allowance must be made when comparing them with carriers that have major hubs in locations where deicing delays, and ground stops from visibility restrictions will be less of a factor. That not to suggest that weather alone explains the gap, but weather will account for some of it--the question is how much (or how little?)

Even comparing AC to WS, we have to account for the fact that AC is much more dependent upon conditions at YYZ, whereas WS is more dependent upon conditions at YYC. YYZ has double the aircraft movements with only 50% more runway capacity in its principle operating direction (and only two of those runways are Cat III). When low visibility separation rules kick in, that has a much bigger effect at YYZ than at YYC. Neither airline is immune from that, of course, but AC will feel it more than WS. To what extent, then, do ground stops from YYZ disproportionately affect AC operations? Does a higher volume of connecting traffic play a role in delays to protect connections?

Could AC do better? Doubtless they could. But we should not be so uncritical when throwing around raw statistics.
AC*SE is offline  
Old Mar 28, 18, 3:10 pm
  #55  
 
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: YYZ
Programs: AC SE MM, Bonvoy Plat, Hilton G,Nexus, Amex MR Plat,IHG Plat
Posts: 4,371
Originally Posted by AC*SE
There's a fair bit of apples and oranges going on here. Clearly both WS and AC are dealing with significant OTP issues, and the time of year suggests that some allowance must be made when comparing them with carriers that have major hubs in locations where deicing delays, and ground stops from visibility restrictions will be less of a factor. That not to suggest that weather alone explains the gap, but weather will account for some of it--the question is how much (or how little?)

Even comparing AC to WS, we have to account for the fact that AC is much more dependent upon conditions at YYZ, whereas WS is more dependent upon conditions at YYC. YYZ has double the aircraft movements with only 50% more runway capacity in its principle operating direction (and only two of those runways are Cat III). When low visibility separation rules kick in, that has a much bigger effect at YYZ than at YYC. Neither airline is immune from that, of course, but AC will feel it more than WS. To what extent, then, do ground stops from YYZ disproportionately affect AC operations? Does a higher volume of connecting traffic play a role in delays to protect connections?

Could AC do better? Doubtless they could. But we should not be so uncritical when throwing around raw statistics.
I think this has been answered (sort off) upthread. With several of the US carriers having hubs in snow prone zones (NYC, BOS, etc) and summer storm zones (IAH, etc) it probably is closer to a apples to apples comparison, specially v/s US carriers. Additionally AC hub at YVR has little to no weather delays.
My flight two weeks back showed no delays. YYZ-SFO. Doors closed approx 10-15 mins after scheduled departure time. We then sat at the gate for 45mins due to congestion on the ramp and taxiways. Then 40mins or so for deicing. then in line for takeoff which took so long we had to go back for deicing. And then line up for takeoff again. Landed in SFO three hours late. Not sure if this counted as a on time departure since there were no alerts of departure delay. Only alert was from Tripit when I landed that the flight was late arrival by 3 hrs. So not sure which 'stat' this falls under. And yes, I do know this was weather related.
vernonc is offline  
Old Mar 28, 18, 3:15 pm
  #56  
Posting Legend, Moderator, Manufactured Spending
 
Join Date: May 2002
Location: YEG
Programs: HH Silver
Posts: 56,223
Originally Posted by vernonc
I think this has been answered (sort off) upthread. With several of the US carriers having hubs in snow prone zones (NYC, BOS, etc)
AS is over 85% OTP and they fly to snowy Alaska.
PFT and YYC009 like this.
tcook052 is offline  
Old Mar 28, 18, 4:29 pm
  #57  
 
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: YVR - MILLS Waypoint (It's the third house on the left)
Programs: AC*SE100K, wood level status in various other programs
Posts: 5,948
Oddly enough, about 90% of my recent AC flights have had exactly the average time delays, as provided by EF. I'm not sure if that's good or bad though since none of the flights had any higher than a 52% OTP to begin with. But I'll count myself lucky that I wasn't 1 (or more) SD beyond that average.
Bohemian1 is online now  
Old Mar 28, 18, 7:15 pm
  #58  
 
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: YVR
Programs: Ice Cream Club, AC SE MM, WS Plat, Marriot Life Plat
Posts: 2,791
Originally Posted by rankourabu
Could something be said about the correlation of left/right on this scatterplot to the left/right politics? Culture?
DrunkCargo is offline  
Old Mar 28, 18, 8:03 pm
  #59  
 
Join Date: May 2012
Location: Calgary
Programs: Aeroplan (Silver), Air Miles, IHG Rewards (Platinum)
Posts: 641
It seems AC has taken the approach to fly the heck out of their planes, offer more flights/routes/frequency/etc.. and if someone misses their connection, just rebook on the next available flight. It does make money and is an interesting strategic approach. Especially if ##% of the time you can blame the weather, ATC, etc..

The other carriers have taken the approach to fly a reasonable flight schedule that allows time to be made up at a downline station when a delay occurs upline/earlier in the day or have the appropriate number of spare aircraft correctly positioned at their hubs to swap out with a delayed inbound. In AC's case, as soon as one flight takes a delay, the next one/two/three/four flights on that FIN will likely take a delay too as there is little room/padding in the schedule to account for any irregularities until day's end when the aircraft get to sleep for a few hours.
YYC009 is offline  
Old Mar 28, 18, 8:12 pm
  #60  
FlyerTalk Evangelist
 
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Canada
Programs: UA*1K, BA Silver, AC35k
Posts: 23,136
Originally Posted by YYC009
It seems AC has taken the approach to fly the heck out of their planes, offer more flights/routes/frequency/etc.. and if someone misses their connection, just rebook on the next available flight. It does make money and is an interesting strategic approach. Especially if ##% of the time you can blame the weather, ATC, etc..

The other carriers have taken the approach to fly a reasonable flight schedule that allows time to be made up at a downline station when a delay occurs upline/earlier in the day or have the appropriate number of spare aircraft correctly positioned at their hubs to swap out with a delayed inbound. In AC's case, as soon as one flight takes a delay, the next one/two/three/four flights on that FIN will likely take a delay too as there is little room/padding in the schedule to account for any irregularities until day's end when the aircraft get to sleep for a few hours.
Dont think so. Lots of carriers schedule much tighter turnarounds, and utilize their fleet more efficiently. Southwest comes to mind (for those who still claim weather is to blame). As does Ryanair with their 30 minute turns and 88% on time performance.
rankourabu is offline  

Thread Tools
Search this Thread

Contact Us - Manage Preferences - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Terms of Service - Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information -

This site is owned, operated, and maintained by MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. Copyright © 2023 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Designated trademarks are the property of their respective owners.