Alaska Airlines troubled by lateness
Carrier also ranked low for baggage problems and cancellations
By SARANA SCHELL
Anchorage Daily News
Published: August 5th, 2005
Last Modified: August 5th, 2005 at 06:16 AM
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Alaska Airlines had the nation's worst performance for on-time arrivals during June, with half of its flights not arriving when scheduled, according to a report released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Alaska Airlines' Flight 164 from Anchorage to Seattle was late every time in June.
The Seattle-based airline's 49.8 percent on-time arrival rate in June was worse than its 59 percent in May, when it also ranked last, according to the department's Air Travel Consumer Report. The report ranks the performance of the nation's biggest 20 airlines.
In June of last year, Alaska Airlines ranked sixth best.
The airline also ranked poorly for mishandled baggage and flight cancellations, the report said.
Amanda Tobin, spokeswoman for the airline, acknowledged the problem and said Alaska Air's reliability plummeted as labor problems coincided with the start of its busier summer schedule.
She said the airline's numbers improved in July, with about 65 percent of its flights arriving within 15 minutes of their scheduled time -- the official definition of "on time."
That still would rank worst if all other airlines perform the same as in June, when Airtran Airways came in second worst with 66.4 percent of its flights on time.
Passengers in June endured many-hour delays, missing baggage and even smoking aircraft.
Palmer resident and devoted Alaska Airlines customer Mary Flynn, a nervous flier on a good day, said a June flight she took from Seattle to California turned around 15 minutes out because of a "pungent burning smell." The English teacher waited four hours to board a retry flight, she said, then was delayed further on the tarmac.
Her flight was still listed as on time 45 minutes after it was to have arrived, Flynn said.
Her trip home wasn't much better. As she sat in the Sacramento airport, she listened to other passengers exclaim over a plane they could see smoking from one of its engines (actually, its tailpipe, a company spokeswoman said later). Flynn said she didn't feel like getting up to look herself. After repeated delays, her daughter made the 50-mile drive back to bring her home for the night.
Flynn's rescheduled flight home in early July was yet again repeatedly delayed, and she missed her connecting flight to Anchorage.
"It must be terrible to be an Alaska Airlines counter person," Flynn said. "My heart ached for those people."
Improvements on the nation's ninth-largest carrier have come as the airline cut flights and added time between flights to avoid a domino effect if one flight early in the day is delayed, Tobin said.
Flight cuts meant more crowded aircraft, even though Alaska said it carried 2 percent fewer passengers than in June 2004.
Labor issues continue.
Alaska Air Group, parent company for Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air, said it wants $112 million in labor savings after trimming elsewhere in a two-year quest to cut $340 million from annual operating expenses.
In mid-May, the airline replaced 472 union baggage workers at its Seattle hub and replaced them with contract workers from Menzies, the global company that handled the airline's baggage at airports south of Seattle.
Last month, pilots, mechanics and flight attendants rejected tentative agreements the airline reached with their unions.
Employee morale is rotten, said Jim Lewis, who recently quit his job as an Anchorage baggage handler.
"I have a wife and four kids. I really felt like I had to do something more secure," Lewis said. Still, he said he respected some local management. "I don't want to say everything is bad."
The company is also taking steps to grow in a competitive market.
In June, the airline announced its first major airplane order since the late 1990s.
"We don't see this as an environment where an airline can successfully tread water," chief financial officer Brad Tilden said. Also in June, the airline said it boosted fares by $3 to $5 per one-way trip to offset rising fuel prices.
Two weeks ago, the airline posted a $17.4 million profit for the three months ended June 30, up from a $1.7 million loss for the same quarter last year. The company lost money in four of the last five years, including $15.3 million last year, according to its filings with regulators.
Earlier this week, Alaska announced it had added a Los Angeles-to-Mexico City flight.
Daily News reporter Sarana Schell can be reached at sschell@adn.com or 257-4466. The Associated Press contributed to this story. |
