Any UA pilots or mechanics on FT: why so many MX this year?
 

Are there any UA pilots or mechanics on FT that can answer this question: why does UA have so many MX delays and cancellations nowadays? I know that us armchair pilots/mechanics have our opinions, so no need to add those to this thread -- would prefer that we not regurgitate this. Rather, would prefer to hear something from actual UA employees. Thanks!

It's pretty simple....no contract

I don't think you will get any takers from real UA employers for a number. Of reasons

Perhaps, or perhaps not.

You start with an airline that thinks striving for 80% reliability is good enough, add quick turns and high aircraft utilization so there is no time to correct entries on the maintenance log, and add one additional back-up system on the minimum equipment list going down when the primary system had not been repaired and was on the squawk sheet, and you end up with maintenance delays.

DL made reliability a specific focus. UA doesn't care. "80% is good enough." Even though UA can't even make the 80%.

Is there any factual evidence that this is true, or is it just anecdotal?

There must be factual information, but to me it really feels like it has gotten worse over the past 6 months.

When I look back at when I began frequent flying in the mid-2000s, I routinely took multi-segment trips with no real fear of irrops, outside of weather. Now, I shudder when I have even a single connection for the very real fear of MX and other operational issues (e.g. a WX 4 flights back in EWR affects my flight in LAX, thanks to UA's utilization strategy and tight turns).

So at least in my experience, things have gotten far worse than I can ever recall them being as a frequent flyer with UA. So far this year, at least 50% of my flights have had irrops, the majority of them not directly WX.

My last 3 flights have all had IRROPS. I'm really starting to wonder what's going on... Never used to be like this. Im going to have to start traveling on Sunday so that I don't continue to miss work every Monday.

That the operational numbers are in the toilet this month? Factual.

That there's a lot of mx problems? Anecdotal.

That there's a work slowdown? Speculative.

Here is statistical evidence of UA's operational collapse in June, with emphasis on widebody dispatch failure rate.

http://crankyflier.com/2015/06/29/is...been-terrible/

But I still don't see anything there about maintenance. I'm trying to be objective (I haven't flown UA enough this year to have any personal data), and I just wonder if people are jumping to conclusions.

its not jumping to conclusions. You can look at the employee facebook page and see the evidence first hand.

So you're saying there is no objective data. Union propaganda is hardly convincing evidence, any more than company propaganda.

I've noticed the same thing. I've had mechanical issues or other fleet/staff related issues on more than half of my flights this year that has caused travel disruptions. That, combined with the fact that I live in a non-hub city (ATL) and need to connect for almost all my trips, has made for a very stressful year.

The concentration of widebody mx issues at two hubs (EWR, IAD), which just exploded in June, during an ongoing labor dispute with mechanics' union, seems more than coincidental.

No direct evidence, but we might call this circumstantial.