spin88

It is interesting that none of the issues we all know about as contributing to UA's woe-begotten operational performance are mentioned in the piece, and what is (slowing down boarding to hold a plane) are very small scale and certainly don't help with OT performance.

Missing from this is any discussion of:

(1) unified labor groups
(2) ending cross fleeting, until there is full integration, leading to equipment being based away from crew and MX resources
(3) having more spare A/C
(4) increasing down time between flights and for MX to allow delays not to be passed on
(5) getting a decent computer system which better allows rebooking
(6) increasing ramp/gate staff, and having more spare crews
(7) not schedualing so that the crew and A/C are both coming in from different places, each with little slack, so that a delay in one causes further delays.


In fact United appears to be going the opposite direction, by e.g. going to 787 flights ex-SFO/LAX, neither of which have the resources (MX or crew) to address issues before they arrise, and then basing sUA equipment out of hubs w/o sUA staff and MX facilities. That is not gonna' help.

This piece just sounds like another of the periodic blasts about all the great "changes you are gonna' like" none of which improve things, and many of which made things worse. A new upgrade system, new meals, new coffee, new banked scheduled, new routes, new 787 "game changes", new seats, now again new meals in international Y. United is the airline that under-performs, under-promises, and then under-delivers.

jsloan

What's interesting to me, in light of the ongoing issues, is that CO did exactly the same thing at EWR under Bethune, for exactly the same reason; it served to keep problems at EWR from impacting flights in and out of CLE and IAH.

UA would have fewer "weather issues impacting our network" if they followed this particular pmCO practice.

geo979

This plus getting even more aggressive in categorizing United caused delays as weather delays.

Silver Meteor

You need to add one. Yes, I know UA has started paying yearly bonuses, but Richard Anderson is telling Delta employees they are on track for a 20% bonus on Valentines day this year. Huge...huge...incentive that goes a l-o-n-g way. UA needs to do what it takes so the employees at least have a chance to get this kind of payout.

uber1K_Flyer

They make a point that its an in house program - and we know how well their other in house programs are...

DENviaLAX

I've never seen an aircraft scheduled like that. It only happens when there is a plane swap involved, which only happens to cut down on an already existing delay situation(MX, WX, etc), not create one for no reason.

To your second point, that problem could easily be improved with adequate staffing. Although some of the new SOP changes management has made to the way the process is done has greatly slowed things down as well(leaving the engines running on arrival until GPU is connected, not being able to unload the forward hold on a 739 until the aft is completely empty, problems with CLP, not being able to stick belt loaders in the plane for loading, etc). All moves to either save money or cut down on potential aircraft damage(which wasn't a huge problem anyway), but make the operation run very inefficient and end up costing more money in other areas anyway.

Back in the day, ramp could and routinely did turn planes in less than 30 min, and did it with ease. Almost always being done before CS. Much harder to do that these days with all the restrictions, though. Would be nice to see a greater emphasis placed on on-time numbers, but thus far its been heading in the wrong direction as far as actually providing the tools to do that.

sbm12

UA pays out profit sharing to employees on Valentines Day the same way.

transportbiz

Or you do like most airlines and do both?

EWR764

Which dates back to a Bethune-era CO practice. Delta, of course just has a lot more profit to share. For all the bashing of CO leadership style that goes on around here, these days you'll find an awful lot of former CO people at Delta, and the similarities between Delta and "old Continental" are no coincidence...

Baze

You think UA is capable of that?

My own caveat, for the most part my flights have been on time or early and my luggage has always made it. So I think they are capable. But your mileage may vary.

transportbiz

I don't think they are, at least not consistently, but I do think they should be. But, I've never lost luggage on flights that were late...hum....

But, I'm not a good one to ask on delayed baggage, I have the absolute worst luck. In the past 15 years, I've checked luggage perhaps 20 times, and I've had delayed luggage on nearly every one of those instances. And to be fair, it's not all been United. But, the worst one was United, when the lost a shotgun for 2 weeks. Pretty amazing since you have to fill out special forms for checking firearms, and they supposedly receive special handling. At the two-week point United began asking questions about the item; such as brand, model, replacement cost...etc. It was funny, but when that information had been provided they found my gun in about 8 hours.

halls120

When a sUA aircraft crew times out at a hub where there are only sCO crews available on standby, isn't that a problem for operational performance?

Silver Meteor

Agree. Well aware of that. What I said was, I hope UA gives the employees the tools to where they can get the same 20% (someday), that Delta is on track to give their employees this year.

spin88

Lack of a labor agreement is a huge problem. First, it creates issues with MX, second (and more problematically) it does not allow crew shifts. That combined with having pilots, FAs and planes scheduled separately is fubar.

For example, I had a recent sUA A320 flight that had a MX in LAX, so was badly late. I switched to a later (but now earlier) sCO 738 flight. Plane was at the gate, but no crew, both pilots and FAs were comming in on seperate flights. Both were late. Pilots showed up (probably just in time for an OT departure), but no FAs. So we waited, left 50 minutes late. Had their been an integrated system/contract, UA could have pulled a crew off one of the other probably 15 delayed flights at SFO.

I see this on DL all the time. I talk to the FAs and they are now going to a different city, were not our original crew. They are happy (I think they get extra $$ for doing it), Delta is on time (saving them $$$) and I am on time.

Part of what happens on UA is that sUA flight into hub (say MCO-IAH) is 50 minutes late. Well that flight impacts three other flights, since the plane is going to do IAH-SEA, the pilots will be doing IAH-PHX, and the FAs will be doing IAH-ORD. Since a sCO crew can't replace them, UA how has three flights which are late, which can then spawn up another 9 delays.

worldtrav

Yes they do, and compared to the quoted 20% for Delta do you know the amount from UA?