Boraxo

Per today's WSJ Delta has drastically reduced the number of cancelled flights (bonus: reduced delays too) by taking common sense pro-active approach to addressing recurring issues. DL now leads all US carriers with fewest delays.

UA seems to be going the opposite direction. Earliet this year I broached this topic with a veteran UA pilot who confirmed that UA does not stock extra parts overseas hence longer delays or even cancellations when they have to request parts from other carriers. Personally I found just about every one of my SFO-IAH flights was delayed last year, often 2-3 hours.

Does UA management understand that reliability is the #1 priority for most travelers (particularly for high rev business travelers) and that they need to up their game?

From WSJ (paywall site):

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/...trending_now_5

*** "The episode, unorthodox in the airline industry, illustrates the fanaticism Delta now has for avoiding cancellations. Last year, Delta canceled just 0.3% of its flights, according to flight-tracking service FlightStats.com. That was twice as good as the next-best airlines, Southwest and Alaska, and five times better than the industry average of 1.7%.

***
But Delta has had more zero-cancellation days this year compared with the same time last year and expects to return to the lowest percentage of cancellations among U.S. airlines again before the end of April.

***

Typically the airline has about 20 spare airplanes of different sizes each day. About half are stationed in Atlanta and the rest spread around other domestic hubs and two in Tokyo. Delta may start the day with 10 airplanes out of service. It used to have nearly double that, but has improved its maintenance work. That means that if a remaining spare or two are pressed into service in Minneapolis and some planes with a few minor health concerns are scheduled for evening trips out of Minneapolis, a spare from Atlanta may be shifted north, an expense few airlines would take before there was an actual breakdown..."

trvlr70

It's obvious that UA ridiculously cancels flights out of convenience and blames weather. Last week, I flew RDU to ASE via ORD. My first leg was cancelled due to "weather", i.e. strong winds in Chicago about 8 hours before schedule. Yet, AA's flight RDU to ORD was miraculously not effected and left about the same time. Either was the GSO-ORD flight that I was ultimately placed on. And there was no mention of "weather" or "strong winds" in Chicago by our pilot. Clear skies both ends of the flight.

The most telling thing I noticed was at O'hare. I had time to walk between the terminals and noticed that not a single flight was cancelled at AA at O'hare while UA's board was peppered with cancelled flights. My travel companion noted that it must be windy at the other side of the airport.

UA is making such dreadful management decisions these days that it is almost cringe-worthy. I honestly try to not to fly UA because they are so notoriously unreliable.

exerda

United could reduce delays by less-aggressively utilizing their a/c, but that is a reduced opportunity for $$ as a plane on the ground isn't a plane flying and earning money.

Integrating the crews, pilots, etc., across sUA and sCO will presumably help as it will make it easier to reallocate employees as needed for irrops. A simplified fleet would also help IMHO.

And, of course, less reliance on United Express. Pilot shortages, mechanical issues, and cancellations at the drop of a hat due to weather are rampant with UAX.

Kacee

I wonder if UA has had even a single day in the past year without a cancellation? mx seem absolutely epidemic. And it's not like UA favors cancellations over delays, the norm is a rolling delay that ultimately turns into a cancel 4-6 hours out.

This recalls the similar report that DL has been so successful with its 744 maintenance program, that it regularly reports 30 day periods without a single 744 mx. And those aircraft are at least as old as UA's mx-plagued 744s.

Jackstay

The article does not address the impact of express flight operations nor does it say whether or not the cancellation statistics include them.

I suspect express operations would degrade both the statistics and hamper the type of efforts described in the article that Delta is using to improve their cancellation rate. Yet another reason to minimize reliance on express operations.

DXjr

Only a very small portion of Delta's regional flying is bundled in with Delta's numbers, and the same applies to UA. Several of the regional carriers are large enough to report seperately, and thus their numbers are not reported with UA or DL. That said, all of the carriers---both UA, and DL, and their largest regionals---are all within a point or two of each other as far as completion rates go. Also, on average, Delta's regionals on their worst day still sport a higher percentage on-time rating than mainline UA on its best.

mduell

Please note this is generally UA's decision, not the fault of UAX. When the weather is poor and the FAA puts a delay program in place, UA is responsible for the allocation of all UA and UAX slots. UA may choose to use the UAX slots for mainline flights to keep more people moving so the UAX cancellations should not reflect on the UAX carriers. The staffing and mechanical issues do reflect on the UAX carriers.

A point on completion rate is huge.

Miesque

This is an excellent assesment of why I avoid United if I possibly can nowadays. Nowadays United is now pretty much always the "leader" in delays/cancellations on any Departure board regardless of airport.

It almost seems like they are trying their hardest to run this airline into the ground. You would think management was getting compensated in Delta and American stock instead of United.

DXjr

Or it can be tiny. It just depends on the number of flights scheduled. That said, you generally don't notice it on a day-to-day basis because the flights are usually not related to one another and are spread throughout the system, and the delay/cancellation can be dealt with with more easily. There are always exceptions, of course, such as those flights that are bound to hubs that are notorious for cancellations, like SFO.

topcat_dcx

Maybe someone can tell me why UA does not seem to know where its crew is when these flights get delayed...

On a number of occasions in the last few months, my flights have been delayed or cancelled (need I add at the scheduled departure time) because the crew or pilot or FO was somewhere else (missing, other side of airport, incoming flight, or another airport even).

How can they not know?

spin88

Jeff was directly asked about his 80% OT goal on the 3Q 2012 call, question was if United did not need to do better, and outperform, to earn back customers they lost. Jeff replied that there were "diminishing returns" in pushing OT above 80%.

Jeff thinks that you have to fly UAL, and you will continue to fly UAL, even if they cancel your flight or are badly late.

yield figures show he is wrong, but I think its clear that the loss of high rev business passengers has not sunk in to the CO management team. They are just way, way out of their depth, and are floundering around.

Air Houston

Interestingly, a few years before the merger CO would routinely tout the fact that they had X days in a given month with a 100% completion factor. And reliability is certainly important to this flyer.

planemechanic

Simply not true.

Pilot rumors, and FA rumors are worth every penny you paid for them.

CO_Nonrev_elite

United sees a cancelation as a way to keep the customers money and squeeze them onto another flight that had an open seat. Thus increasing load factor and profit without spending the fuel and costs of actually operating the original flight.

United does not (yet) see that the customer that they screwed over, The customer that they told was "lucky UA got them a seat at all", that customer isn't going to return to UA for any flights any time soon.

The entire culture of this airline at the present time is very, very short sighted

trvlr70

I agree 100% here. It is shocking that your average Joe now realizes UA is basically unreliable and avoids booking with them.