• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Airline Apparently Not Spinning Flight Delays

Posted on: Sunday, 28 August 2005, 18:00 CDT

MINNEAPOLIS -- While striking mechanics have accused Northwest Airlines of misleading the public about flight delays, interviews with more than a dozen passengers flying out of Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport showed the airline's information matches passengers' experiences.

The Associated Press asked 14 passengers with flights on Northwest on Thursday to record their flights' actual arrival and departure times. While the passengers were traveling, the AP monitored their flights on departure boards at the airport. The data was also compared to information on Northwest's Web site.

The passengers were picked as they waited near security checkpoints. In nearly all cases, the passengers reported departures and arrivals within a few minutes of what was posted on the airline's Web site and departure information boards.

Robert Mann, an industry analyst and consultant with R.W. Mann & Co., said an airline wouldn't change flight data to its advantage because doing so would be a costly labor move, and in the end, all the information gets reported to the federal government. "It's been the case for a long time that it's been all automated," Mann said of the flight information. "It doesn't get manipulated and there's nobody in the middle flavoring it."

He said the hard numbers on Northwest's performance will be clear when a report is due to the U.S. Department of Transportation at the end of the month.

Members of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association, which includes mechanics, cleaners and custodians, went on strike Aug. 20 after refusing a package of layoffs and wage concessions of about 25 percent. Northwest has said it needs $1.1 billion in labor savings.

The airline has continued to fly with replacement workers. After days of insisting it maintained a normal schedule, Northwest acknowledged Friday that it had trouble with cancellations and late flights in the days before and after the strike.

Northwest's on-time performance slid from around 72 percent two days before the strike to roughly 50 percent when the strike began the morning of Aug. 20. More than half its flights were late that day, but the numbers have been getting better since then, recovering to above 70 percent on Wednesday and Thursday, said Andy Roberts, vice president for operations.

Northwest's on-time performance Friday morning and early afternoon fell to about 52 percent, mostly because of thunderstorms in the Twin Cities and other weather delays, Roberts said. Flight cancelations peaked at about 9 percent of Northwest's planned flights just before the strike, and it had to cancel 4.3 percent of its flights on Sunday. Cancelations were back down to less than 2 percent on Friday, Roberts said.

A flight is considered on time if it lands within 14 minutes of its scheduled arrival time, according to federal guidelines. Any flight arriving 15 minutes or later than scheduled is considered delayed.

Source: Columbian

More News in this Category