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Southwest Airlines struggles with being on time
A major airline in Chicago suddenly can't seem to get passengers to their destinations on time, posting worst-in-the-industry on-time rates. But, surprise. It's not an airline that cynics love to hate, mega-carriers United Airlines or American Airlines. And it's not an ultra-discounter like Spirit Airlines. (www.chicagotribune.com) المزيد...
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Part of the problem is due to their tight turn around time which in some cases is only 25 minutes. Evidently they assume it'll be made up in the actual flying time in the next segment. That doesn't always work. Jet Blue has a 40 minute ground turn around time.
They set unrealistic turn times and then push employees to make an impossible schedule... Used to work there...
Well, as they go to bigger and different style planes, those turn times will have to expand and they are going to have to make allowances for another 40-50 pax as well as gate clogging at some of their focus cities. They are also going to find that due to their short haul and just general congestion in the air, that an in flight time makeup may not always be possible. They are probably already looking at some of these things though. In the early years, turnaround time at outlying stations was 10 minutes. That has gone to 25 and now may have to be stretched even further.
A metric that is not an absolute, as with most statistics. An extended stay at the bottom though could indicate a trend.
Southwest, being proactive as they are, will probably not let it stay there for long though and I'd bet that they were already working on it, particularly if it's on account of late shove time, which it would appear to be, and not ATC. I believe that metric is based on shove time at the gate.
The metric is based on A:14 - arrival within 14 minutes of schedule. I think it's a combination of a lot of things - ATC and a somewhat unrealistic schedule at LGA, EWR, and ATL, which are still relatively new stations, gate constraints at MDW and STL, and 738's taking a lot longer to turn than they expected. Basically the way to fix this is to probably pull down some flying at MDW and add block time to LGA, EWR, and ATL flights and add turn time on 738's
Probably turning the 738's and gate constraints are the biggest. It looks like most of the problems are getting off the ground and not ATC. I figure they'll work it all out and get back on top PDQ. LOL
Love 'em or hate 'em, they have been a consistent performer in a tough marketplace. I expect you are right that this won't last long even if it isn't costing sales.
