several passengers had missed their connecting flight.
I landed in Pittsburgh about two hours later than scheduled
because they didn't have a plane ready to leave Phoenix airport.
But at least we got to Pittsburgh that night!
Craig flew in and out of Idaho and I think at least some of his
flights were late too. Craig wasn't on Frontier.
Denver-based carrier blames ramp contractor for declining peformance at DIA
WASHINGTON — Alaska Airlines slipped past rival Hawaiian Airlines to
post the best on-time rating for U.S. carriers in July.
A total of 21 planes were stuck on the ground longer than federal rules
allow — three hours for domestic flights, four for international ones.
Eight of the long
delays were on Delta or Delta Connection and five were on United.
It was the highest monthly number of long delays in more than a year —
since there were 24 in February 2015 — and it could mean fines for the airlines
involved.
The Department of Transportation said Tuesday that 75.2 percent of
flights on the 12 largest U.S. airlines were on-time during July. That’s down
from 78 percent in June and 78.1 percent the previous July.
The department said 89.4 percent of Alaska flights arrived within 14
minute of schedule.
Denver-based Frontier had been steadily improving its on-time
performance, arriving within 14 minutes of schedule about 80 percent of the
time for the last 12 months. But in June the ultra-low-cost carrier’s on-time
performance dropped to 75.6 percent and then to 63.3 percent in July.
Frontier’s on-time performance at Denver International Airport in July
was even more poor, with just 60.4 percent of 2,125 arrivals landing on-time,
compared with 83.9 percent of United’s 5,078 arrivals and 73.4 percent of
Southwest’s 5,887 arrivals. United and Southwest are the two largest carriers
at DIA.
Frontier spokesman Jim Faulkner faulted staffing issues at Swissport,
the company’s ramp services contractor at DIA, for the on-time slump. The
trouble, he said in an e-mail, began in May and affected Frontier’s
“on-time performance for both departures and arrivals this summer.”
In May, Frontier
hired Simplicity USA to manage customer service, ramp work and
baggage handling at DIA. The new contract begins on Saturday.
“The transition to Simplicity has already been taking place and is
already bringing our on-time performance back to top-tier in the industry
according to our internal numbers, a position we held during the first
five months of the year,” Faulkner wrote.
Overall, 77.3 percent of flights arrived at DIA within 14 minutes of
schedule, and 74.6 percents of flights departed on time.
The biggest four airlines finished in the middle of the pack, with Delta
best in the group followed by United, Southwest and American.
Nearly 2 percent of
all flights were canceled, including 2,300 on Southwest in the days after a
computer outage. The cancellation rate nearly doubled from June.
Consumer complaints filed with the government continued to fall and
represented a tiny fraction of the millions of airline passengers.
The transportation department said it received 1,963 complaints
including 1,357 about U.S. airlines. The overall complaint rate fell 9 percent,
complaints against U.S. airlines dropped 20 percent, and complaints about
foreign airlines rose 19 percent compared with a year earlier.
Here are the government’s rankings of the leading airlines and their
on-time performance for July. The federal government counts a flight as on time
if it arrives within 14 minutes of schedule.
1
Alaska Airlines, 89.4 percent
2
Hawaiian Airlines, 88.8 percent
3
SkyWest, 82.9 percent
4
Delta Air Lines, 81.6 percent
5
United Airlines, 76.6 percent
6
Virgin America, 75.4 percent
7
Spirit Airlines, 72.8 percent
8
ExpressJet, 70.9 percent
9
Southwest Airlines, 70.8 percent
10
American Airlines, 70.7 percent
11
JetBlue Airways, 67.8 percent
12
Frontier Airlines, 63.3 percent
Total for all reporting airlines: 75.2 percent
___
Source: U.S. Department of Transportation
The report does not cover smaller airlines including Allegiant Air and
some regional carriers.
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