Competitors close gap on Southwest Airlines

Friday, Dec. 1, 2000 | 10:38 a.m.

On time to Las Vegas

The U.S. Department of Transportation rated 10 national air carriers on arrival times at McCarran International Airport. These are the percentage of on-time arrivals in September 2000:

The gap is closing between Southwest Airlines and its competitors in the critical customer satisfaction category of on-time arrival.

Southwest, the largest air carrier serving Las Vegas' McCarran International Airport, continues to have the best on-time arrival rate in the industry among the 10 leading airlines, a report issued by the U.S. Department of Transportation says.

The airline was on time 77.5 percent of the time in the 12-month period from October 1999 to September 2000. That's down from the 82.8 percent average since 1987 when the ratings were first compiled.

Meanwhile, other carriers, recognizing the need to build customer loyalty, have improved their own on-time records. At McCarran, Southwest was surpassed in September in on-time efficiency by the No. 4 carrier in the Las Vegas market, Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines.

Of the 10 major carriers serving Las Vegas, Delta had the best on-time arrival rate, 86.9 percent, followed by Southwest at 82.2 percent and Continental, 82.1 percent.

Overall, flights to Las Vegas were on time 79.4 percent of the time for 11,292 arrivals that month. That ranks 15th among 29 major U.S. airports. Departures from McCarran were on time 79.2 percent of the time.

Brandy King, a spokeswoman for Southwest in Dallas, said the airline's on-time performance has suffered because there are more people flying. Southwest has a growing presence in the northeastern United States, taking on cities like Buffalo, Albany and Long Island, N.Y., Manchester, N.H., and Providence, R.I.

Analysts point out that air corridors in the Northeast are more crowded than those of Southwest's traditional territory. King also said Southwest's Boeing 737s are fuller, making it more challenging to unload and load planes in the 20 minutes the company strives for.

She said Southwest still doesn't provide meals, which makes it easier to service the planes when they're on the ground. But the company has begun experimenting with loading and unloading planes from both front and rear doors of its jets at some airports, like Dallas' Love Field and Austin, Texas.

"Other airlines are improving their own arrival times," King said. "We've heard that some carriers are increasing the amount of time between departures and arrivals on their cities to give themselves a cushion, but we haven't done that."

Southwest also fared well with the least number of operations canceled with the lowest percentage in the industry, 0.6 percent of 75,495 operations nationally in September. The highest percentage of cancellations was by United, 3.9 percent of 62,268 operations.

Alaska Airlines had the fewest number of mishandled baggage reports, 2.63 per thousand passengers nationally, while the highest was reported by USAirways, 5.83 per thousand. Alaska still had the fewest during the nine-month period from January to September, but the worst record for that time frame was reported by America West.

Southwest didn't fare as well in the category of passengers denied boarding when planes are oversold. Of the 10 carriers, Southwest finished ninth, with 1.92 involuntary denied boardings per 10,000 passengers nationally, finishing just ahead of TWA, with 2.06 per 10,000 for the months of January through June. The best airline in that category: Delta, with 0.39 denied boardings per 10,000 passengers.

The Department of Transportation also logged consumer complaints against airlines for the month of September, comparing figures to the same month a year ago. Southwest led the industry with 0.38 complaints per 100,000 boardings compared with 0.86 a year earlier. United trailed the field with 5.03 complaints per 100,000 boardings, down from 5.35 per 100,000 a year ago.

USAirways showed the most dramatic improvement in that category, going from 8.24 complaints per 100,000 in September 1999 to 3.16 per 100,000 this year.

The report also recorded the types of complaint each airline received from January through September, listing airlines of all sizes. Las Vegas-based National Airlines was listed as having a total of 43 complaints during the nine months, 14 of them categorized as "flight problems" -- those involving cancellations, delays or any other deviations from the schedule, whether planned or not.

National also had nine complaints of lost or damaged luggage, eight customer service complaints and three involving fares.

National is now the No. 5 carrier at McCarran, flying exclusively between Las Vegas and eight cities.