May 08, 2007

US Airways woes

Just more than half of US Airways' March flights arrived on time, worst in the industry, and that played a role in the airline posting the industry's highest rate of customer complaints for the month.

US Airways, the dominant carrier at Pittsburgh International Airport, also finished near the bottom in a third customer-service category, mishandled baggage.

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation's Air Travel Consumer Report, released Monday, only 55.5 percent of US Airways' flights arrived on time in March. The second-worst rate in the industry was JetBlue's 63.6 percent on-time rate, the report showed.

US Airways also had the highest rate of customer complaints among 20 top U.S. carriers, at 4.43 per 100,000 passengers, as well as the most reported complaints, 231. The runners-up: United Airlines, with 2.64 complaints per 100,000 passengers, and American Airlines, which had 164 complaints but also 3.4 million more passengers in March than US Airways.

US Airways also had the fifth-worst rate of mishandling baggage, at 10.93 per 1,000 customers. Its rate during March 2006 was 6.66 per 1,000.

The March woes can be traced to a St. Patrick's Day weekend storm that shut down operations in Philadelphia, one of the airline's major hubs, and affected more than 100,000 passengers. Rebooking passengers was difficult as many planes were full because of the crush of spring-break travelers, an airline spokesman said.

Also during March, the airline experienced problems trying to combine the reservations systems of the former America West Airlines and US Airways, which merged in September 2005. A computer glitch early in the month created delays and long lines across the eastern United States.

"We knew it wasn't going to be pretty. The problems were a combination of our doing and Mother Nature," spokesman Morgan Durrant said.

"The April numbers will be better," Durrant said.

TARDY FLIGHTS

Three of the 25 tardiest domestic flights in March had ties to Pittsburgh International Airport, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation:

ExpressJet Airlines Flight 2575 from Newark International Airport to Pittsburgh was late 96.15 percent of the time in March. Twenty-five of its 26 flights were at least 15 minutes late. The only flight with a worse track record was US Airways' Flight 2188 between Washington's Reagan National Airport and New York's LaGuardia Airport. All 26 of its flights were at least 15 minutes late. On average, though, the Reagan-to-LaGuardia flight was 55 minutes late, while Flight 2575 to Pittsburgh was 95 minutes late.

ExpressJet Flight 2864 from Newark to Pittsburgh was the seventh-tardiest flight (late 92.3 percent of the time, 72 minutes late on average).

ExpressJet Flight 3005 from Pittsburgh to Newark was the 17th-tardiest (88.5 percent, 80 minutes).

©Beaver County Times Allegheny Times


By: Tom Fontaine, Times Staff
Source: www.timesonline.com

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