Southwest Airlines now besting United and American in on-time performance

Lewis Lazare: Reporter-Chicago Business Journal

Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV) apparently means business. Despite some two weeks of air traffic control hell in October in Chicago, where Southwest has its largest hub at Midway Airport, the low-fare carrier still managed to almost match its September on-time arrival performance, according to stats released today by FlightView, an airline and airport performance data provider.

According to FlightView, Southwest notched a 77.3 percent on-time arrival performance in October, down just slightly from the 77.9 percent recorded in September, when air traffic control issues began to be a factor in the Chicago area.

Southwest's October on-time performance also gave it bragging rights over Chicago-based United Airlines (NYSE: UAL) andAmerican Airlines (NASDAQ: AAL), both of which have major hubs in Chicago. AA and UA were equally impacted by the prolonged closure of Federal Aviation Administration's regional air traffic control facility in Aurora, IL., due to arson.

According to Flightview, UA had a 73.7 percent on-time arrival performance in October, while AA came in at 72.3 percent. The on-time performance of all three carriers may have been helped by their collective decision to cancel thousands of flights from Chicago in the immediate wake of the air traffic facility's closure.

For Southwest, the push to improve its poor on-time performance has become a goal ofsupreme importance to the carrier, as was revealed in a snail mail letter to the airline's most frequent travelers that went out last month.

However Southwest, AA and UA are all still chasing the leader among major United States carriers in the on-time arrival arena, Delta Airlines (NYSE: DAL), which continued to soar above the rest in October with a 84.3 percent on-time arrival performance, per FlightView.

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