2012 - Believe It or Not, Flying Is Improving
Passengers who spent Christmas night stranded at the airport as half an inch of snow and ice in Dallas crippled American Airlines flights, or fliers who endured the chaos stemming from United Airlines merging its computer system with Continental's may remember 2012 as a lousy year for airline travel.
In fact, flying domestically was better than in 2011, the numbers show. The Middle Seat's annual airline scorecard of airlines' operational performance, using data from the Department of Transportation and flight-tracking firm FlightStats, shows industrywide improvement in most important measures.
About 79% of flights on all U.S. passenger airlines arrived within 15 minutes of scheduled time, compared with 76% in 2011, according to FlightStats' tracking of more than 8 million flights. Only 1.4% of flights were canceled last year, compared with 2.1% in 2011. Fewer flights had "excessive" delays of 45 minutes or more. And fewer domestic bags were lost or delayed through October, the most recent period reported by the DOT.
On the downside, the frequency of airlines involuntarily bumping ticketed passengers increased, as did the overall rate that travelers filed complaints to the DOT.
Last year was miserable for United and American, though. The two airlines were worst among the seven largest carriers ranked on the scorecard. United had the highest rate of bumped passengers and by far the highest rate of customer complaints, according to DOT data. American had the worst on-time record and canceled the biggest percentage of flights among the seven airlines.
Best among the big carriers: Delta Air Lines, DAL +1.45% which managed smooth operations even with lots of flights in the congested, sometimes stormy skies of the East Coast. Delta had the lowest rate of flight cancellations, according to FlightStats, a unit of Conducive Technologies. It was in the top three in all six measures of airline operations studied, and that consistency put it ahead of No. 2 Alaska Airlines.
Associated Press
A Delta agent assists a passenger at New York's JFK International Airport. Delta moved from last place in 2010 to No. 1 for 2012, even with lots of flights in the congested skies of the East Coast.
First place capped a two-year turnaround for Delta, which had ranked worst in 2010 when it merged Northwest Airlines' operations with its own, but improved significantly in 2011. Careful study of when and where cancellations are most likely, and adjusting spare aircraft availability to keep flights moving if there is a breakdown helped, as did a rebuilt baggage system at its Atlanta hub to reduce lost luggage. "We had a good 2011 and a great 2012," said David Holtz, Delta's vice president for operations control. "We set goals above 2011 and we exceeded those goals."
The key, said Mr. Holtz, was being predictable for customers on the 30 to 40 bad-weather days each year by making decisions early on cancellations and delays, and then running a clean operation without cancellations and delays on good-weather days. Instead of 10 to 12 annoying cancellations on good days, Delta now averages only about one a day when there aren't storms, for example. "We've taken the defects out of the good-day operations," said Mr. Holtz.
Both United and American found themselves apologizing to customers for their problems during the year.
United Continental Holdings Inc. UAL -0.98% Chief Executive Jeffrey Smisek apologized for widespread problems when the company moved United's passenger records onto Continental's computer system, and for unreliability in the busy summer season. Amid the computer changeover, some reservations disappeared, gate agents struggled to board flights, phone lines had waits stretching hours. The troubles led to late and canceled flights, lost baggage and angry customers.
In the summer, United had reduced spare-airplane availability and reworked its schedule, and it all backfired with increased delays and cancellations. The airline reversed course, adding back plane availability, allotting more time for flights and crew connections, and starting boarding earlier to build more flexibility into its operations.
Associated Press
A contract dispute with pilots in the fall led to a slowdown of American's operations, and the carrier continued to struggle with on-time performance.
Nearly four times as many complaints about United were filed with the DOT in the first 10 months of the year, jumping to 3,617 from 958 in the same period in 2011. United accounted for virtually all of the industrywide increase in complaints.
United spokesman Rahsaan Johnson said the airline started turning things around for the better in the fall, and improvement has continued through the winter. "Our performance was inconsistent but began to show steady improvement in September," he said.
Tom Horton, chief executive of American's parent AMR Corp., AAMRQ 0.00%apologized in November for widespread delays and cancellations, and offered double elite miles for frequent fliers to placate passengers. A contract dispute with pilots led to a huge slowdown in September and October, but that was only part of the problem. American's operation, which has ranked at or near the bottom in on-time performance for six consecutive years, continued to struggle. Through the first eight months of the year, American ranked No. 5 in on-time arrivals among the seven biggest carriers. In December, it ranked No. 6.
The Christmas debacle showed how fragile American's reliability was last year. The National Weather Service measured 0.4 of an inch of snow and 1.33 inches of rain at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport on Dec. 25, with some ice as temperatures dropped. Most airlines handled it well. Other carriers had 69% of flights depart on-time and only one cancellation. At nearby Dallas Love Field, Southwest AirlinesLUV +0.64% canceled no flights.
3,617
Passenger complaints about United Airlines sent to the Department of Transportation from January through October.
777
Complaints about Delta Air Lines filed over the same period last year.
But American and its American Eagle unit, which combined have more than 600 scheduled departures at DFW, launched only 11% of flights on-time and canceled a whopping 40%. DFW airport reported 1,000 passengers were stranded overnight in terminals. On a flight to Las Vegas waiting five hours, the captain told passengers, one of whom was on the phone with local TV station WFAA during the announcement, that he had called multiple managers within American trying to get help.
"It's beyond reproach. I have no words to tell you how sorry I am for all this," said the pilot, recorded by WFAA. "This is way above our heads, by people that obviously, in my humble opinion, don't have a clue what they're doing." The flight to Las Vegas was ultimately canceled.
Spokeswoman Andrea Huguely said lengthy delays and cancellations resulted from a combination of equipment problems and a lack of employees, some of whom had a difficult time getting to work in the Christmas storm. Shortages meant American wasn't able to deice fast enough, which led to additional delays, cancellations and, at times, too many aircraft and too few gates, she said.
"Our performance on Christmas Day was not up to our standards, nor what our customers expect and deserve," Ms. Huguely said.
Overall, she noted, American had its best on-time performance in five years in the first half of the year, though it ranked no better than fifth among the largest carriers.
American's potential merger partner, US Airways, LCC +0.07% ran a much better operation, placing in the top three in several important metrics. But it was next-to-last in customer complaints. Although US Airways turned around its operation several years ago, it has continued to suffer a high rate of angry customers filing gripes about flight problems, fares and refunds to the DOT.
US Airways said complaints have dropped over the past few months, and the airline is trying to get in touch with unhappy customers quickly, spokesman John McDonald said. More workers have been added to respond to customers on Twitter and Facebook.
"We're making it a bit easier to complain to us, rather than simply default to the DOT," Mr. McDonald said.
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2011 - The Airline That Loses Bags, Cancels Flights
In Latest Rankings, American Places Last in Customer Service; Alaska Tops List, Delta Makes a Turnaround
Tough times in Big D: First, the Dallas Cowboys missed the NFL playoffs (again). Now, locally based American Airlines has ranked dead last in customer service in the annual Middle Seat analysis of major domestic carriers (again).
The best-performing carrier last year was Alaska Airlines, the smallest among the seven major U.S. airlines. And in a surprise showing, Delta Air Lines scored a big turnaround, placing second in 2011 compared with ninth in 2010.United Airlines got sacked as well, showing that mergers can create big customer woes. United and Continental Airlines, when combined, scored almost as poorly as American.
The Middle Seat scorecard ranks major carriers each year on a number of key measures important to travelers: on-time arrivals, long delays, canceled flights, mishandled bags, passengers bumped from flights and complaints filed with the Department of Transportation. Data come from DOT and FlightStats.com, a flight-tracking service that collects real-time flight information from airlines, airports and the Federal Aviation Administration. (See the 2010 Airline Scorecard.)
Alaska, which launched an operational overhaul in 2007 after several years of dismal reliability, was first among major airlines in on-time arrivals. The carrier has set internal standards: There are 50 different check points on a timeline for each departure, with data collected on each one. Flight attendants have to be on board 45 minutes before scheduled departure; customer-service agents board the first passenger 40 minutes before departure, and 90% of passengers need to be boarded 10 minutes before departure. What time the fuel truck hooks up and what time it disconnects its hose are measured. When flights arrive, the time the belt-loader pulls up to the plane is tracked. The cargo door is supposed to be opened three minutes after arrival; the first bag needs to be dropped on the carousel before 15 minutes after arrival.
"There are so many moving parts. You just can't tell people to get the airplane out on time," said Ben Minicucci, Alaska's chief operating officer.
Delta engineered a major operational turnaround last year. In 2010, Delta was second-worst in punctuality and baggage handling among rival airlines and it had the highest rates of canceled flights and consumer complaints filed with the DOT. For 2011, Delta ranked in the top three in five of six categories.
Middle Seat columnist Scott McCartney discusses 2011's best and the worst airline for departures, lost baggage and pet deaths. Photo: AP
In the past two years, Delta opened maintenance operations in nine cities that aren't hubs for the airline, such as Miami, Portland, Ore., and Philadelphia, to keep more of its fleet ready to fly. Once it was done integrating with Northwest Airlines, Delta invested in new baggage systems in Atlanta, plus new technology in its operations control center and retraining for customer-service workers.
"There are a lot of side benefits to running a good, clean operation," said David Holtz, Delta's vice president of operations control.
American, which filed for bankruptcy-court reorganization in November, has struggled with its operation for several years. For the past five years, American has been among the worst three airlines at on-time performance, a key measure of an airline's operation since it impacts mishandled bags, bumped passengers and even canceled flights and customer complaints.
Last year, American was worst among major carriers at baggage handling and had the highest percentage of canceled flights. The rate at which American canceled flights was 70% higher than at United, Delta and the industry average for major airlines, which the DOT defines as those with more than $1 billion in operating revenue.
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A scene from Chicago's O'Hare International Airport in November. Getty Images
American, which replaced its top operations executive last month, says its aging fleet has led to increased cancellations because of more mechanical breakdowns. In addition, American said its hub cities seemed particularly plagued last year. A severe thunderstorm season last spring in the South took a toll, along with a tornado in St. Louis, a fuel-farm fire in Miami and a hailstorm in Dallas that damaged 50 jets.
The carrier has placed large orders for new replacement jets and stepped up baggage scanning to improve accuracy. It now hopes bankruptcy reorganization will allow the same kind of cost cutting and work-rule changes that have boosted operations at other airlines, said Jon Snook, American's vice president of operations planning and performance.
"There's no question cost has impacted on our ability to invest in dependability," he said.
United and Continental merged in 2010, but the two carriers still operate on separate reservation systems. Customers like Jay Gould complain they sometimes get lost in the gap between the two airlines. Mr. Gould, a lawyer in San Francisco and New York, is a top-level frequent flier who pays for membership in United's airport clubs. Yet, he got kicked out of a Continental lounge, where privileges are reciprocal. After 45 minutes and a flurry of phone calls, he was allowed back in.
A United spokesman said the airline expects complaints to drop when it moves to one passenger system within a few months.
JetBlue Airways had both the most-frequent delays and the longest delays. Nearly one out of every eight jetBlue flights was at least 45 minutes late last year, according to DOT and FlightStats data. The average delay for a jetBlue flight that ran late was 65 minutes, according to DOT data for the first 10 months of the year.
JetBlue says the New York and Boston areas, which are departing or arriving points for 73% of all its flights, got slammed last year with a few severe weather events that led to long delays and canceled flights. Hurricane Irene and severe snowstorms in January and October hurt performance.
"We don't have hubs in more favorable weather areas to balance it out," said Rob Maruster, jetBlue's chief operating officer.
Southwest Airlines, the only major airline that doesn't charge fees to check two pieces of luggage, had the second-worst rate of mishandled bags, better than only American. Bags fly free, but they don't always get there. Excluding AirTran Airways, which Southwest acquired in May, Southwest would have been the industry's worst at baggage handling. In addition to added volume, Southwest's baggage operation has struggled with complexity of connecting lots of different flights in lots of different cities.
Southwest said it made a major push to improve its on-time reliability in the second half of 2011. This year, baggage gets a major SWAT team improvement effort, said Greg Wells, senior vice president of operations. Currently, the carrier is studying use of hand-held scanners to improve accuracy in routing bags.
Still, Southwest customers aren't complaining. The airline had the fewest complaints per passenger, according to DOT stats.
The overall rate of cancellations among major carriers was unchanged in 2011 from 2010 at 1.4% of all flights, according to DOT data covering 10 months and FlightStats data for November and December.
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2010 - The Big Guys Finish Last in Airline Rankings
Big was bad when it came to airline service last year. Delta, American, United and its merger partner Continental placed last in the annual Middle Seat customer-service rankings of major domestic carriers in 2010.
Best among major airlines: smaller carriers. Alaska Airlines and AirTran Airways had the highest percentages of on-time flights and generally lower rates of lost bags, cancellations, passengers bumped from oversold flights and complaints filed with the Department of Transportation. Those two airlines were the only two majors to decrease their complaint totals in 2010—the rest shot higher.
WSJ's Scott McCartney and Kelsey Hubbard discuss the annual Middle Seat customer-service rankings of U.S. major domestic airline carriers for 2010.
Size can bog down an airline operation. Scheduling planes, crews and maintenance tasks can get increasingly complex as airlines get bigger. Flying to more cities exposes the daily operation to more storms. Bigger waves of connecting flights mean more possibility for lost luggage or misconnected passengers. Bigger work forces get more difficult to manage and motivate.
"The larger the hubs, the more connections you have to make. There are so many more variables," said Robert Isom, chief operating officer for US Airways, which had the best year in its history in 2010 in terms of airline operations performance. Overall, with high scores in on-time performance and baggage handling but low rankings in overbooking and complaints, US Airways ranked fifth out of nine.
Southwest Airlines is flying into many of those big-airline headwinds as it grows. The low-fare carrier used to be an on-time machine, regularly providing flights so punctually that it was a major marketing point for the airline. But Southwest ended 2010 in sixth place among the nation's nine major airlines in on-time arrivals, according to data compiled by FlightStats.com, a flight-tracking service, and the DOT.
As Southwest has pushed into more big-city hubs often plagued by delays, it has increasingly struggled to avoid late flights and resulting problems like misconnected baggage. Southwest ranked No. 6 in baggage handling and seventh in the frequency of involuntarily bumping passengers from its flights.
Southwest still ended up in third place overall on the scorecard, largely because it had the lowest rate of customer complaints and second-best in how frequently it cancels flights.
Southwest says its ranking among airlines fell because others improved and it slipped some. Last year, Southwest had 79.5% of its flights arrive within 15 minutes of schedule—the DOT definition of "on time." That's close to the airline's historical 80% to 83% on-time rate, but still a decline.
Greg Wells, Southwest's senior vice president of operations, said fuller planes were the primary problem. Southwest squeezed more connecting passengers onto flights last year—its load factor, or percentage of seats filled, jumped to 79.3% from 76% a year earlier and historical averages around 70%. Southwest typically held planes for connecting passengers rather than depart on time and leave customers behind, he said.
See major airlines ranked from best to worst in key operational areas.
Southwest, however, is planning changes this year to "try to get things ironed out," Mr. Wells said, and boost its on-time performance. The company also wants to get its operation moving better before it begins integrating with AirTran. Southwest's proposed acquisition of AirTran is still pending regulatory approval.
"There's no doubt that with 540 airplanes across 70 cities, complication is a big deal," Mr. Wells said.
For the industry, complaints and cancellations were up sharply last year, reflecting the challenges of flying in 2010. The number of complaints filed with DOT through November was up 30% for all airlines combined, and that likely could go higher with all the traveler unhappiness during the December holidays, when snowstorms left passengers stranded for days.
The number of flights canceled last year jumped 22% to 153,000, or 1.8% of all flights, according to FlightStats. In 2009, 125,637 flights were canceled, or 1.45% of the total scheduled. Airlines blamed the increase on devastating blizzards last February and last month, plus disruptions from volcanic ash, a runway repaving at busy New York Kennedy airport and compliance with the new federal tarmac-delay rule, which threatens heavy fines if airlines leave passengers stuck on grounded planes for more than three hours.
The on-time arrivals rate improved a bit in 2010 over the previous year, as did baggage handling. Through the first 11 months of the year, 1.8 million bags on domestic flights were "mishandled"—the DOT's term for bags that don't show up as scheduled—compared to two million in the same period of 2009.
The Middle Seat scorecard uses data on airline operations from FlightStats.com, which uses airline and Federal Aviation Administration data to track flights, and DOT data. DOT has yet to report December data, so baggage handling and complaint rankings reflect results through November; involuntary bumping statistics reflect the first nine months of the year.
Seattle-based Alaska posted the best on-time arrivals rate of the year among major airlines. According to FlightStats, 87.4% of Alaska's flights in 2010 arrived on time, up from 83.2%. Alaska also scored first in canceled flights, with only 0.65% of the carrier's flights canceled during the year. Worst in punctuality last year among major carriers: jetBlue. The New York-based airline also had the biggest increase in complaints, followed by Continental, American and Southwest.
Fewer bags were mishandled in 2010 than in 2009, DOT data show (European Pressphoto Agency).
Delta, the largest carrier after its merger with Northwest Airlines, was second-worst in punctuality and baggage handling, and it had the highest rates of canceled flights and consumer complaints filed with the DOT.
Delta said cancellations were up because of the major weather events of the year, plus the European shutdown from volcanic ash clouds. In addition, the airline canceled flights more aggressively ahead of significant storms to "ensure compliance with the new DOT tarmac rules," said Neil Stronach, senior vice president of operations control.
US Airways saw the number of flights it canceled increase by 17% last year compared to 2009, according to FlightStats. The airline canceled 1.28% of its flights, compared to 1.06% the previous year.
US Airways says the main culprit was February blizzards on the East Coast. After that, airlines had lots of good weather, with little hurricane impact, for example, until the Christmas blizzard. Without the February storms "it would have been a record year for us" in terms of few canceled flights, Mr. Isom said.
US Airways counted 536 flights—140 at the main airline and the rest among regional airline partners—that it canceled primarily because of the tarmac rule, which took effect in April. Those flights, about 2% of the total cancellations for the year at the main airline, carried about 9,000 passengers who had to be rebooked instead of waiting out long delays.
"If the weather was any worse, those numbers would have been much larger," Mr. Isom said.
*Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703889204576077913263118594.html
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