Airline summer performance improves

The major airlines finished the summer with about 74 percent of flights operating on time, according to FlightStats.com. That's an improvement over last year, when about 70 percent of flights were on time.

Here's how the big domestic airlines performed in June, July and August:

• Frontier, 85 percent
• Southwest, 82 percent
• Alaska, 79 percent
• Northwest, 78 percent
• U.S. Airways, 78 percent
• Spirit, 77 percent
• Virgin America, 75 percent
• AirTran, 75 percent
• Continental, 71 percent
• Delta, 71 percent
• United, 67 percent
• JetBlue, 65 percent
• American, 65 percent

- Trebor Banstetter

Comments

[dray]

The once great "ON TIME MACHINE". So sad how far AA, a once great and proud airline has fallen. Where in the heck is leadership when you need it most. Bring back Robert Crandall, if anyone can keep this ship from sinking, it's him!

[Frank]

To Dray:

Uncle Bob coming back would be nice, but I suspect those who would have to sign off on that idea wouldn't have him, knowing full well they would be gone in a heartbeat and not be able to continue their systematic plunder of the corporation.

[T Cameron]

C.R. Smith is rolling in his Arlington Cemetery burial plot.
AA has gone to Hell in a handbasket and DFW is nothing but a place to get paid to be late.

[APAv8r]

The business of AMR senior management is this: cut all costs to the bone, even if that destroys the quality of the product and the operation. Look good on paper momentarily, collect huge "retention" bonus--then leave anyway.

Arpey has neither CEO authority or integrity--his execs tell him all is well, rake in cash for themselves and with front-loaded escape plans (the YEARS of huge executive bonuses), they just walk away from the flaming wreckage like they had nothing to do with the crash.

ENRON-style greed and corruption on a grand scale.

[dc8]

mr crandall. if you read these blogs please please come back and clear this once proud company of the disease that excists. i know and i have faith you will do so. i pray everyday to god and the virgin mary that you will walk into hdq and say your,e fired. sounds familiar? crandall for 2009.

[dray]

Frank,

In my twenty-six years I've seen alot. Uncle Bob was so mean you liked him. He told you what he wanted and why he wanted it and it was done. He didn't tip-toe around bull****, he walked through it and told you to follow or hit the road. As the old saying goes, "Bob Crandall was a SOB, but he was our SOB". Back then AA wasn't about corporate America, it was about the customer and employees. Now their about pocket lining first and somewhere off the radar, the customer and employees. Just look at the rankings, ratings and any other measure you want to use, they don't lie. I never thought I'd say "I wish I worked for a SOB" again, but boy, do I miss those days!

[laxaaemp]

All the folks want Crandall back have a "retention" problem - Obviously they can't retain their memories ( do you remember the wonderful "b" scale pay he intorduced). When Crandall was here, he was hated by the pilots and alot of other groups - This view of him as the airline savior is something that has been altered by the passage of time

[Shelby]

Folks,

I worked for another airline for 12 years and heard many stories from our CEO (who was good friends with Bob) about how Bob wished he could relate better to his employees. He may not have been great at employe-relations, but he was a shrewd businessman.

Yes, the airline was making money, yes it was well-run, but I imagine that even Bob would have a difficult time finding a way to change American's entire way of doing business to accommodate the fuel prices and new security regulations.

The employee-relations, if anything, is worse. For over three hours on a recent flight, I listened to two flight attendants complaining about wages, schedules, etc. the entire flight.

The old saying, "the bigger they are, the harder they fall," is appropriate in American's case.

I'm afraid they haven't hit bottom yet.