MJonTravel

I'm sorry for posting such a question, but I had to ask. Unsure how many of you read Joe Brancatelli's weekly column, but I've been a reader since before I left AA. In this week's Tactical Traveler (sub required) column, Joe mentioned AA's paltry performance according to the DOT statistics recently released (based on April data). AA really did not have a good month according to the numbers.

The data is months old, and April may have been a bad month, but I just don't remember anything from this board indicating that it was so much worse than any other. Just thought I'd ask the folks that know what's really going on..... Have things deteriorated in general? Or was the poor April performance made worse by wx issues at DFW that I seem to remember?

vasantn

My experience has been no worse than normal, although I rarely fly from, to or through DFW.

jragosta

April and May were particularly bad months for weather in DFW.

JGR01

Did Joe also mention the Jet Blue meltdown?

This spring has been ruff for ORD, STL and DFW weather related issues ... on AA carriers. Early May was in DFW and the LGW flight ran 3+ hours late at the gate, my SCL flight ran 2 hours late ... all due to storms.

Not nice to fool Mother Nature.

moman

Of the 9 flights I took on AA (Mainly through MIA this month), only 1 was delayed by 20 minutes due to inbound aircraft, and we still arrived on time. So I'd say that while DFW, STL, and ORD may be suffering, MIA is doing OK.

MiamiAirport Formerly NY George

Flew 12 times on AA between mid March and early June and only one flight was signficantly delayed (by weather-about 90 minutes-even that was not a major delay.) However, in both March and April I saw the aftermath of canceled flights at ORD and it was not pretty. I was very lucky in that all of my flying most of flights were actually early.

That said, if we have a lot of storms this summer there is probably going to be operational meltdowns as seen several times already this year. Record load factors and little in the way of extra crews and spare a/c will make finding room for displace paxs a difficult task. Look for more people sleeping on cots for several days if ORD/DFW and NYC airports are impacted by weather issues. But I don't think that this is by any means an issue specific to AA.

The 64,000 $ question is will leisure travelers reduce their flying if it becomes such a hassle to fly and more of the living in the airport for three days type stories are featured almost 24/7 on all of the media outlets.

JDiver

This link (no sub required) is to a recent post by Joe Brancatelli on last week's ATC computer meltdown, as well as related issues. And AA was not looking good on June 8 - FlightStats.com showed (as reflected in Brancatelli's column)

American Airlines
On-time flights: 47%
Flights canceled: 134
Flights delayed over 45 minutes: 640

Not the worst performance of all on that day, but nobody was shining.

Add noxious midwest and Atlantic weather, stretched employee resources (particularly pilots with available flying time at the end of the month,) full aircraft (not to mention misconnects and overbooking) and you have a formula for unfriendly skies.

heathriel

Of the 6 trips I've taken out of Boston in the last 2 months, 3 have been on AA. All 3 of the AA flights had at least one leg delayed 2+ hours, and on two out of 3 of them, my bags didn't arrive with me.

I took two trips on USAir, both of which had legs delayed by one hour (one inbound, one outbound), once resulting in a 5 minute connection, but my luggage arrived with me.

One trip on Jetblue, no delays, no luggage checked.

All of these days were typical Boston conditions - windy but otherwise clear.

In all, the service on AA was worst, as even though I was also delayed on USAir, at least they managed to transfer my bags with a shorter connection time than AA had.

jragosta

The Wall Street Journal has an article today (page A14) saying that the FAA will have the air traffic system updated - by the year 2020 and at a cost of $15 billion.

Since the leading candidates already have their systems in use in other countries and/or with private planes in this country, it's hard to comprehend why it will take 13 more years to get it installed.

heathriel

<redacted deleted quote>

The OP was asking if people's experiences were that it was going downhill.

In my experience, it was.

I was not on the other zillion flights during that time period, but I was on a cross section in and out of one airport.

I only said I originated/terminated in BOS, not that that was the only airport I transited through.

One of my worst AA delays was actually in LIH, due to an equipment change in LAX that left them completely unprepared and made us leave 4 1/2 hours late on a redeye, missing connections.

<redacted>

fahrradman

My experience is that 2007 has been horrible. I'm a weekly ORD->LGA commuter. In 2005 and 2006, I had exactly one time I could not get home on the day I set out to (it was the day of the London liquid bomb scare). In 2007 I have had three nights I could not get home when I set out to. I even had one weekend where I could not get home. Because of higher load factors on flights means cancelled flights may get you a rebooking days later. And I'm EXP. It's to the point I'm thinking about working where I live for a change.

jayer

The Summary Statement:

. . .But significant improvements could be difficult. Major airlines are increasingly vulnerable to bad weather over their hubs, because of various factors including changes in flight schedules, heavy passenger loads, a taxed air traffic control system and reductions in staffing, according to airline executives, analysts and labor officials.


The Raw Statistices:

Because of American's reliance on its D/FW hub, thunderstorms over North Texas have led to substantial problems for the airline this year. During the first four months of 2007, American diverted 298 D/FW-bound airplanes to other airports, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Only 86 were diverted in the same period in 2006.

American canceled 2,550 flights departing D/FW during those months, up from 569 the previous year. And the number of delayed flights jumped about 23 percent.


The Full Link

http://www.star-telegram.com/news/story/140089.html

Does not appear to have been written by a person who flies frequently and does not always seem logical from the perspective of somebody who does, but insightful as to the OP's question.


Not stormy, but it rained all morning. And most of yesterday. Nice if you live here, but not if you are flying.

ESpen36

My philosophy on the issue is that if you plan to take an afternoon or evening flight, you can expect a minimum of a 30-60-minute delay just for operational reasons--awaiting equipment, cleaning, catering, etc. Sometimes much longer.

If you absolutely must have an on-time flight, take a morning flight, preferably one where both the equipment and crew originate at your departure point.

That's the reality of air travel these days. AA and other airlines are trying to maximize revenue by keeping aircraft in the air as much as possible, minimizing ground time. That means that if everything goes perfectly according to plan, the planes perform better for AA. The problem is, it's virtually impossible to keep the schedule on time with planned 20-minute turnaround for Eagle, 30-45-minute turnaround for narrowbody, and 60-minute turnaround for widebody. Those turnaround times simply are not realistic and most importantly do not account for ATC delays, especially out of LGA, ORD, and other airports that are completely saturated. And remember that just a couple of minutes of ATC delay on the morning flight can throw the entire schedule off for that equipment, resulting in a 3-hour delay for the last segment of the day.

I, for one, have experienced many more cancellations and delays in 2007 than in 2006, thus far.

brettyokom

and you can be SURE that it will be late, obsolete and over-budget when it is 'ready'. in case you haven't noticed, the government is filled with incompetent agencies who routinely waste and lose billions of dollars annually and the FAA has always been one of the most incompetent of the lot. to say this hard to comprehend is ... well hard for me to comprehend. remember, this is a country where the bureaucracy requires six months to process simple passports.

BStrauss3

(1) The Startle Gram thinks because AA is based here, they have to be the AA watchdog. AA ordering new planes will be played as 'AA to increase debt load'.

(2) last year major drought - basically only trivial rain after January. This year - above normal. Is it any wonder more flights were cancelled??

-----Burton