Long the whipping boy of the regional airline industry’s performance problems, Atlantic Southeast Airlines (ASA) has reached a tipping point in improving its performance to the point where it now ranks at the top tier of the industry in terms of cancelled flights, according to President and COO Brad Holt, who took the lead at SkyWest Inc.’s subsidiary company last fall. But the latest consumer statistics out of the Department of Transportation (DOT) still show regionals suffering the worst records for things over which they have little or no control, such as overbooking, mishandled baggage and complaints.
ASA’s controllable completion factor for the first quarter was over 99 percent, according to Holt, saying that illustrates the good progress being made on the quality of the operation. The airline has also invested more than $14 million in renovating a new, 200,000+ square foot hangar facility at the Atlanta airport. It is ASA’s first hangar at its hometown hub through which more than 80 percent of its flights fly daily. It said that has helped to improve overall reliability. The general offices and maintenance support teams have also moved into the facility, placing the people who support the front lines all in one physical space.
ASA also implemented technology in its Operations Control Center (OCC) allowing for more quick and efficient recovery planning during irregular operations, something that has plagued many in the industry and is not the subject of a suit filed by SkyWest Inc. and Delta. Related Story
“I guess the good news as far as I’m concerned,” said Holt, “is the problems are behind us and we’ve learned a lot of lessons. Since late 2007 and so far in 2008 we’ve ranked right up with the best of them in almost every category. When I got here in late 2007, there were some things I identified that needed to be done and that was to develop our partnerships which were, at the time, a little disjointed,” he told Regional Aviation News. “We had to develop solid partnerships with our employees, with Delta and with the communities we serve. That encompassed a lot of work but it is what we continue to concentrate on today. We went face to face with all three, got feedback on how we could improve and have taken that input and implemented it.”
What really impressed Holt was being told his company was costing some communities such as Montgomery, Ala. “Listening was a major thing, especially with our communities,” he said. “They were telling us that we were impacting them financially since a lot of people travel in and out on business. That hit me hard. Then when you sit down with the governor of Alabama and you’re told that your company is affecting the livelihood of those communities; that really hits home. When you share that with employees, we work harder together to repair the problems.”
He pointed to the partnership being built with employees, echoing the employee philosophy that has made SkyWest such a success. “You have to have teamwork,” he said. “If you don’t have a good working relationship with employees and they’re not getting the tools needed to get the job done, you won’t make much progress. We’re fortunate to have some of the most knowledgeable aviation professionals in the business at ASA so we’re doing everything we can to involve our people in the changes we’re making from the ground up. Same goes with the progress we are making with communities and our mainline partner. At the end of the day, there has to be some action and we’ve been taking a lot of action for quite a while now.”
Holt credited Delta Connection Senior Vice President Don Bornhorst, who used to run Comair, for playing a large part in helping ASA change its performance problems by bringing ASA and other Delta Connections into a closer partnership that works for all. Bornhorst joined the organization after an ultimatum delivered by former CEO Gerald Grinstein which said the Delta Connection carriers must improve or be replaced. Related Story For ASA that has meant significant improvements month over month this year.
One of the major issues for all regionals is how little control they have over the customer service issues for which they are blamed in the DOT air travel consumer report. They had no control over scheduling, booking or even which flight gets delayed when an airport gets jammed up. Thus regionals took the hit when, in actuality, it was the major partner overbooking the aircraft and deciding that larger jets would get priority during delay and cancellation events. This left the regional to pick up the denied boarding or misconnected baggage mess or dealing with disgruntled delayed or cancelled passengers. Analysis  Therefore, it is the controllable performance on which regionals are concentrating. For ASA that has meant significant improvements month over month this year.
Bornhorst, said Holt, brought ASA more fully into the scheduling process. “It is really a three-phase process that was not done so well in the past,” said Holt, saying now it is a lot like a manufacturer where the design and production departments work together at the beginning of the process to ensure a smooth production process.
“Delta does a preliminary schedule that shows, in a perfect world, what the customer wants and what it is that we can produce. We spend a lot of time ensuring what works for the customer can be produced. We receive an initial schedule about 40 days prior to the schedule being posted to make sure it matches on an operational basis from both a maintenance and personnel standpoint. Everyone gets involved in how the preliminary schedule fits with maintenance planning, gate planning and crew planning before we send it back to Delta.
Holt identified building a better Delta/ASA relationship as one of his main objectives when he came aboard in December. “We saw significant improvement as early as January” he said, noting Delta took over ramp operations at Atlanta last June in an effort to standardize ground handling and provide a more seamless passenger experience system-wide. “We have an unbelievable relationship with Delta with a lot of good communications. The ramp operations are working really well for us. Delta wanted to handle as much of the ground operations and gates as it could and that has turned out to be good for everybody. We rely more on them today than we ever have. They have pushed the teamwork so everyone understands we have to work together to be successful, and the customer is getting a more seamless product now than in the past.
“I credit Don for that. He’s done a lot of work in the last six to eight months to create a Delta Connection family,” Holt continued, adding that has meant a stronger relationship between the various Delta Connection airlines. “Previously, if one of us had a problem and had to delay or cancel, we were kind of on our own. Now, for instance, if one of us has a problem we don’t worry about whose flight it is that is delayed or cancelled, we’ll jump in and help them out. Overall, that is good for the Connection system. Don brought Delta Connection Inc (DCI) together. That teamwork makes all the difference in the world.”

On Time Operations
ASA scored in the middle of the regional sector with 77 percent of flight operations arriving on time, according to the Air Travel Consumer Report released last week, which does not reflect controllable vs. uncontrollable factors. The discrepancy between controllable and uncontrollable performance gives tantalizing insight into just how much impact major carriers, weather and system problems have on their regional partners. When adjusted for weather and ATC issues, ASA’s on-time number jumps to 87.47 percent.
SkyWest scored the highest at 84 percent, followed by 80.4 percent at Pinnacle. ExpressJet had 76.5 percent of flight operation on time, with Comair at 75.3, American Eagle at 74.4 and Mesa at the bottom at 73.2 percent. However, ASA’s operations were so good, it did not even make the chart covering the number and percentage of flights arriving late 70 percent of the time or more. Comair was worst at 1.1 percent followed by American Eagle at 0.8, XJT and Mesa at 0.7, SkyWest at 0.2 percent. Pinnacle, which reports voluntarily, joined in ASA in not making the chart.
The largest U.S. airlines’ rate of on-time flights this past April was higher than in both the same month last year and March 2008, according to the Air Travel Consumer Report. According to information filed with the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), the 19 carriers reporting on-time performance recorded an overall on-time arrival rate of 77.7 percent in April, higher than both April 2007’s 75.7 percent and March 2008’s 71.6 percent.
In April, the carriers filing on-time performance data reported that 7.70 percent of their flights were delayed by aviation system delays, compared to 8.56 percent in March; 6.51 percent by late-arriving aircraft, compared to 8.87 percent in March; 5.63 percent by factors within the airline’s control, such as maintenance or crew problems, compared to 7.11 percent in March; 0.55 percent by extreme weather, compared to 0.93 percent in March; and 0.04 percent for security reasons, compared to 0.07 percent in March. Weather is a factor in both the extreme-weather category and the aviation-system category. This includes delays from FAA-imposed re-routing. Data collected by BTS also shows the percentage of late flights delayed by weather, including those reported in either the category of extreme weather or included in National Aviation System delays. In April, 37.89 percent of late flights were delayed by weather, down 9.11 percent from April 2007, when 41.69 percent of late flights were delayed by weather, and down 8.50 percent from March when 41.41 percent of late flights were delayed by weather.

Cancelled Flights
ASA certainly led the pack on the percentage of flights cancelled at 0.5 percent, bested only by Continental and Frontier, according to the latest Air Travel Consumer Report. ASA had 22 days with zero maintenance-related cancellations and 16 days in April with 100 percent completion factor for its 24,250 flights. In March, with 25,250 flights – constituting more than 20 percent of Delta’s domestic flights and more than 30 percent of all Delta Connection flights – it had a completion factor of 99.16 and an on-time record of 83.24 percent when weather and ATC issues were taken out of the equation. ExpressJet was next at 0.9 percent of flights cancelled with SkyWest and Comair each cancelling 1.5 percent of flights. Mesa scored worst at 3.7 percent while American Eagle cancelled 2.4 percent and Pinnacle, 2.3 percent.
BTS data on the number of domestic flights cancelled by the reporting carriers showed industry cancelled 1.7 percent of their scheduled domestic flights, lower than both the rates of 1.8 percent in April 2007 and 2.6 percent in March 2008. Interestingly this was when American was forced to ground its aircraft and cancel thousands of flights.
However, official scores for April reflect the fact regionals still rank at or near the bottom on complaints, baggage and denied boarding.

Mishandled Baggage
American Eagle had the worst record at 10.45 mishandled bags per 1,000 passengers, but that improved from the 13.01 posted in the year-ago period. However, ASA was next at 9.59 bags per 1,000 passengers, a drop from the 8.27 in April 2007. ASA noted that mishandled baggage is now in the single digits and improving month over month. It also noted that a new baggage scanning technology being spearheaded by Delta will continue its improving mishandled baggage rate. ExpressJet had the best record at 5.94, an improvement from last year. The top score went to JetBlue at 3.00. SkyWest came in at 6.69, up from 9.2 in the year-ago period. Pinnacle had 6.61, a drop from 6.27, while Comair improved to 7.48 from 11.99. Finally, Mesa came in at 9.01 mishandled bags per 1,000 passengers, an improvement over last year’s 9.89.
The U.S. carriers reporting flight delays and mishandled baggage data posted a mishandled baggage rate of 4.99 reports per 1,000 passengers in April, an improvement over both April 2007’s rate of 6.34 and March 2008’s 6.66 rate.

Denied Boarding
Regionals also take a massive hit on denied boarding with ASA ranking the worst at 5.22 per 10,000 passengers, a slight improvement over the 5.43 per 10,000 passengers posted in the year-ago period. The airline is also making good headway on the denied boardings front by partnering with Delta to identify those flights that are most commonly impacted by things like weight and balance issues. ASA has also made significant investment in infrastructure improvements including the completion of ACARS installation on its entire jet fleet which includes an automated weight and balance tool. Recently it began working with Delta to adjust authorization levels of some of these flights and anticipates continued improvement on that front.
Regionals have no control over sales and booking as that is done by their major partners. Mesa had the best score at 1.19, followed by SkyWest at 2.02, American Eagle at 2.79, Comair at 4.48 and Pinnacle at 4.71 per 10,000 passengers.

Complaints
As for complaints, SkyWest had the fewest at 0.40 per 100,000 passengers up from 0.67 in the year-ago period. ASA ranged at 1.39, a drop from 0.48. Only American Eagle was worse at 2.05, another drop from April 2007 when it posted 1.95. Mesa had 0.53, up from 0.94, while XJT had 0.55, a drop from the 0.36 in the year-ago period just as it was starting its branded operation. Pinnacle had 0.80, a drop from 0.48 while Comair came in at 1.05, up from 1.13 per 100,000 passengers in April 2007.
In April, the department received 1,113 complaints about airline service from consumers, down 10.8 percent from the 1,248 complaints filed in April 2007, but 9.9 percent more than the total of 1,013 received in March 2008.