Spirit jumps to third in on-time ranking
The airline that passengers love to hate is figuring out how to arrive on time.
Spirit Airlines rose to third place in the Department of Transportation's monthly tally of U.S. airlines' on-time performance in October, with 87.2 percent of its flights arriving within 14 minutes of their scheduled time. That placed it ahead of larger Alaska Air Group Inc., which was No. 4.
Since punctuality has been a major part of Alaska's customer appeal, can warmer feelings be far off for Spirit?
Overall, the airline industry posted an 84.8 percent ontime rate in October, and 79.7 percent for the past year.
Spirit CEO Bob Fornaro has made schedule reliability a cornerstone of his efforts to revamp operations at the discount carrier, seeing it as a pathway to better service, fewer complaints and more repeat customers. Under Fornaro, who took over in early 2016, Spirit has also deployed a new website, new software tools to rebook passengers and a more active social media strategy to engage with customers.
While Spirit is making headway, it still hasn't emerged from the passenger doghouse.
It remains the industry leader in terms of customer complaints, with 3.84 nasty notes per 100,000 passengers — a category where, in October, the industry average was 1 per 100,000 passengers. Also, one good month does not a great reputation make.
Florida-based Spirit remains 10th in on-time performance over the prior 12 months, with 76.1 percent of its flights on time by that measure. Hawaiian Holdings Inc. and Delta Air Lines Inc. are first and second, respectively, when it comes to on-time performance over the past 12 months.
Spirit experienced a dramatic reliability meltdown this spring after pilots began declining trips to protest the lack of a new contract; police were summoned to the Fort Lauderdale, Florida, airport to quell a revolt by hundreds of passengers enraged by Spirit's flight cancellations.
At the back of the punctuality pack is Virgin America, which came in at 73.3 percent for October and 69.1 percent for the prior 12 months.
In 2018, the DOT will add another U.S. ultra low-cost carrier, Allegiant Travel Co., to its monthly rankings, which cover carriers with at least 1 percent of domestic passenger revenues.