United Airlines reported disappointing operational performance for November, leading U.S. legacy carriers in terms of flight cancellations and delayed arrivals. Can the weather explain this away or is something else at work?
United has performed significantly better on the operational side this year than in past years, but November’s numbers present a dismaying contrast to competitors. Only 76.7% of United flights arrived on-time last month according to OAG. And remember, according to the United States Department of Transportation a flight need only arrive within 14 minutes of scheduled arrival time to be considered on-time.
In November, even American (80.1%) surpassed United in terms of on-time arrivals. Delta (81.3%) and Southwest (80.7%) took the top two spots.
United also led legacies in terms of flight cancellations in November, cancelling 1.8% of all flights. Meanwhile, Delta cancelled only 0.5% of flights, Southwest 0.8%, and American 1.5%.
Indeed, Chicago O’Hare faced a rough storm on Thanksgiving. Thousands were impacted. East Coast whether and San Francisco fog has also led to delays and cancellations. But these weather patterns are nothing new: Delta also experiences the same issues in its New York hub and faces poor weather in Minneapolis, Detroit, and Atlanta.
A Somber Warning
United’s on-time figures have been sliding in recent months. I trust that United recognizes that this issue, more than any other, is critical to maintaining existing customers and winning new ones. Everything flows from operational reliability. On-time flights make happy customers. When flights are on-time, passengers have less to complain about, making happy flight attendants. While FAs should not have to bear the wrath of passengers over flight delays, they often do.
But with labor unrest at United, I fear that poor operational performance may embolden FAs to further resist management. That could spell disaster for customers, who of them find themselves in the middle. If more delays and cancellations are used as a pretext to protest management decisions in other areas, like reducing onboard staffing, we are in for a winter of discontent.
> Read More: United Flight Attendants Plan Day Of Protest
CONCLUSION
One month is hardly dispositive, but the trend paints a sobering picture for United. I wish I had an easy solution to the problem, but United needs to find one. Otherwise, one problematic issue will feed another.
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image: United
Their plan to boost domestic capacity is leading to additional flights at packed airports and also stretching the planes further on a utilization front. Both of those will cause any airline to suffer operationally but United should have put some systems in place to mitigate the impact and it seems they haven’t yet.
I guess on-time stats are important when measuring overall importance. They become much less important when you’re on stand-by for a United flight and don’t get on just because the gate agents are rushing to get the flight out “on time.” And you’re one of several just standing there with a connection. And then you see the plane departed with empty seats. So who wins in that scenario? Certainly not those hoping it doesn’t happen with the next flight. And the next…
Fair point.
I happened to fly United a lot in November, and the only delay I ran into was due to wildfire smoke limiting arrivals into SFO. Since this was a round-the-clock thing that lasted for days (weeks?), it could explain a big chunk of the gap between United and everyone else.
All I can say United is definitely losing on International flights and that’s what you get for charging carry on bags any check bags extra… United is insane so expensive even for what they call Economy , Should be cheaper but they are very expensive and on top of all that carry on and any check bag is additional which is insane…. I used to fly United for International flights all the time but I stopped last year,because they got crazy with all these insane rules that are not gonna get him anywhere…. Here’s a perfect example Turkish Airlines you get shoulder bag & carry on for FREE also 1st and 2nd checked bag is also FREE,and if you want a 3rd bag it’s $100 additional…. That kind of explains why they’re not doing so good
Carry on is not additional unless you do economy plus versus regular economy. I’ve actually found it cheaper then paying for everything a la carte through budget airlines like Spirit.
You mean basic economy. Economy plus is nicer than regular economy and includes the normal carry on.
I recently just flew United with in this past week..and let me tell you what a horrible experience I had..I don’t fly often and after what I experienced and was put thru I’ll never ever fly United airlines and will not recommended this airlines to no one..(to top off all this company put me thru my suitcase was stolen outta,due to the face united sent my bag hours aboard of me)suitcase was unattended for half a day at some random airport…I’d like to see United make good on my airfare but that process had been a dead end every phone call or email..#UnitedsuxflyAmericanAirlines
United is just a poorly run company with a lot of legacy employees who couldn’t care less. There’s your explanation. Full stop.
I disagree. I just had a very good experience with United. Due to a family illness I had to cancel a trip. They went above and beyond to accommodate me!
I cannot disagree more. Oscar Munoz is one of the most sincere executives in the entire industry, which he has proven time and again. He may have came out on the wrong side of the Dr. Dao incident, but he quickly corrected himself and led a MAJOR overhaul of the company’s culture in partnership with Scott Kirby, the President.
A note about Kirby: people give him a LOT of heat, but it is crucial to note how he has CHANGED since he has come into United. He HAS been leading the charge in announcing new products and investments for the customer and, most importantly, is extremely committed to bearing out his former employer, which he has been doing quite strongly.
Overall, I’d argue that United’s leadership team is among the STRONGESt in the industry.
SFO was hugely impacted by the fires for about a week and half.
UA has a huge hub in SFO that had “flow control” for weeks due to low visibility due to wildfire smoke and rain.
I think this is an interesting point. I will say, though, that D:00, or on time departure, is perhaps a better metric for an analysis on an airline’s operational performance. Believe it or not, on time arrivals and departures are not as correlated as you think because air traffic control (ATC) essentially controls the flight after it leaves the gate. It just so happens that United operates out of hubs that are extremely congested (ORD, EWR, SFO) and ones that consistently face horrible weather, especially in the winter. (ORD, DEN, EWR, and even IAD to a certain extent). So, noting this, I do not believe that on time arrivals are a solid indicator for operational performance for the carriers. I do not know how United performed in D:00 this past month, but it is important, as you noted, to take into account that Chicago and the East Coast to a certain extent were essentially choked up during Thanksgiving weekend and afterwards.
I have flown many different airlines..southwest, American, delta, etc and prefer United over them all. I have never had a bad experience. If there has been a delay it has been related to some weather event that is beyond their control. Whenever possible we choose United over other airlines.
I think the wildfires in San Francisco inordinately affected United because it’s one of their hubs.
Matthew is there a way to see the on time stats for Dulles specifically? One thing I like about United is they tend to run planes back and forth from the same hub. I switched most domestic flying to Southwest after all the customer service problems a while back, but always liked the reliability of the Dulles hub. I am open to flying United some more again since some time has passed as long as the Dulles hub is still reliable. Thanks.
October I fly with United there was a delay on my departure flight because of air conditioning on the plane
I waited until everything was good to go and felt comfortable flying than having a problem in mid air
Customer service was excellent on both flights
I had reservations for the Monday after Thanksgiving. When i checked the united app Moday morning, i found my flight had been changed to Sunday, with no one telling me. United managed to reschedule me arriving 14 hours late, but the part that made me mad is United tried to blame me for missing the sunday flight (oh forgot tp mention that flight was also cancelled, but it was my fault even thiugh all i did was leave for the airport on time for my Monday flight.). I get tnat weather can wreck havoc, but how was it right for United to blame me?