By Keith L. Alexander
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
US Airways has repeatedly launched initiatives to improve its on-time performance: It tried in 1999 and again in 2002.
The efforts have fallen short, as the latest Department of Transportation rankings show. Among 19 carriers, US Airways in March came in two notches above last place in delayed flights.
Now US Airways is taking a new tack to lift its performance: cash incentives for workers. Any month US Airways ranks No. 1 in the DOT report, it will award each employee a $75 bonus.
Leaders of the airline's labor groups were briefed on the bonus program earlier this month. "We're so broke right now as employees, this is good news," said Teddy Xidas, president of US Airways' flight attendants union. "Morale is so bad here, the company is trying to figure out ways they can afford to elevate the morale."
US Airways spokeswoman Amy Kudwa declined to comment on the cash incentives.
With its financial troubles in recent years, the airline has struggled to maintain the measures put in place during its previous on-time initiatives. Now, those earlier steps, as well as others, will get a fresh push. Among them: The aircraft doors will shut promptly five minutes before departure time, as they do on some other airlines; a special effort will be made to get early morning flights off the ground on time to avoid delays later in the day; and conference calls held at 7:45 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. with operations at US Airways' top airports will monitor the status of its departures.
"Our primary focus is to get our flights off the gate and in the air on time each morning," US Airways president and chief executive Bruce R. Lakefield said in an employee newsletter distributed last week. "Falling behind in the morning has a ripple effect on operations throughout the day."
The captain of each flight will act as the departure coordinator and ensure that all necessary takeoff procedures have been followed.
The airline is hoping that its on-time performance will rise sharply from 68.5 percent in the DOT's March report, which showed the industry average at 77 percent. US Airways had ranked one place higher, at 16th, in the February rankings.
The incentive program comes as US Airways is in accelerated talks to merge with America West Holdings.
US Airways' on-time performance has suffered because of its bankruptcy, which has resulted in the loss of hundreds of jobs and reductions in salaries and benefits. The airline is now adding workers in preparation for the busy summer travel season, and executives say the fuller workforce and the new on-time plan is already improving performance. Donna Paladini, vice president of US Airways customer service, said that the airline had 91.2 percent of its flights arrive on time on May 3 during the first week of the new plan. That was its best performance since September, she said.
US Airways is not the first airline to pay bonuses for on-time performance. In 1995, Continental Airlines offered its workers a $100 bonus for every month the airline beat other traditional hub and spoke carriers in on-time performance. Last year, Continental paid bonuses for August, October and December, said spokesman David Messing. Since the program began, Continental has paid about $250 million in bonuses.
In addition to its on-time rankings, US Airways is focusing on the cleanliness of its aircraft.
The airline, which contracted out the cleaning of its planes' interiors in March, wants to ensure that the job get done properly. So it has posted job openings for "aircraft appearance supervisors" at its three major airports in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Charlotte. According to the job description on the US Airways Web site, the supervisor's job is to oversee the cleaning of the aircraft and "ensure that all areas of aircraft cleaning are accomplished in a timely manner."
For some frequent fliers, the attention to cleanliness couldn't come too soon. New York-based clinical researcher Michelle Cousin, who has logged more than 100,000 frequent flier miles on US Airways since 2002, has taken to carrying her own bottle of Formula 409.
When her seatmate went to the restroom on a flight to Houston last week, Cousin pulled out a rag and got busy with her bottle of 409.
"Sometimes the filth you encounter is deplorable," she said.
Question of the Week: United Airlines employees have threatened to go on strike if a bankruptcy judge eliminates their pension plans. United says a strike would be unlawful. BizClass wants to know, have you changed any travel plans on United because of a possible strike? Send your comments, along with your name and a daytime telephone number, to alexanderk@washpost.com .