Newspapers / Piedmont Aviation Employee Newsletter / Dec. 1, 1987, edition 1 / Page 4
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DOT gets Pi's 'on time' data on-time system performance On-time performance de clined in November, the result of , . . ■ Departures m Arrivals an early snow storm m mid- month and the impact of record passenger boardings around the Thanksgiving holiday period. System performance was 3 to 4 points below expectations. November and December are historically the “toughest” per formance months, for Piedmont and the rest of the industry. Employees are encouraged to continue their proven commit ment to a safe, on-time opera tion during the busy Christmas season! Nov-86 Oct-87 Nov-87 The U.S. Department of TVansportation has begun releasing its report cards on airline service quality, and through much hard wori^ and our genuine com mitment to improving service quality. Piedmont has enjoyed favorable ratings in all categories of performance that the DOT now monitors. But, there’s a story behind the story. The DOT’S final rule on airline service quality performance requires the indus try’s top 14 airlines operating at the nation’s 27 busiest airports to disclose certain flight data, via computer tape, for dissemination to the public and to ven dors of computerized reservation sys tems (CRS). The Individual airlines are required to disclose this on-schedule per formance to the public upon request, for instance, during the course of reserva tions and ticketing transactions. ■'Piedmont's efforts to comply with the DOT’S data requirements have called for the integrated efforts of several different departments in a compressed time frame, and the results have been exemplary,” Jim Tkbor. manager-system perfor mance, said. "The technical quality of the data Pied mont submitted is superior to that which many other airlines submitted. In fact. Piedmont ranks the 'best of all the ma jors' in this category, according to DOT analysts.” Of Piedmont's 37,000 September data- records, only 18 did not conform to DOT specifications. Of approximately the same number of operations submitted for the October report, that figure dropped to just 10. "Several airlines had to refile until their data was acceptable, while others merely tapped the data from existing computer banks,” Tkbor said. “We al ready had the technology, so our first step was to devise a computer program to prepare the information.” He added: "It was clearly a pat on the Tto mark the official opening of our new Pier D facilities at BWI, Chair man Bill McGee (second from left] cut a specially-prepared cake in the shape of our concourse following a press conference at BWI on November 23. "With McGee are (1 to r) Maryland Gov ernor William D. Schaefer, U.S. Sena tor Paul Scirbeines, and Tfed Mathison, Maryland’s director of aviation. Upon completion of the project’s final phase in June 1988, we will have a back of the computer services staff led by Keke Robinson. Equally impressive efforts have been exhibited in mainte nance reliability, quality assurance, by CAREsystem programmers, scheduling publications, baggage services, and res ervations, to name a few. “Our organization prepared to meet the DOT requirements in a big way and we excelled,” he said. Piedmont’s responsibilities in report ing to the DOT include reviewing the on- time performance of all of the previous month’s operations and auditing them for times errors. The data for each re ported operation must include flight number, airport codes, date of the opera tion, scheduled and actual arrival and departure times for each flight, sched uled and actual times elapsed, and the difference between the actual and sched total of 25 gates, four designed for our 767-200S, plus 18 computer gates on line, in addition to a new ground control tower. The press conference was held to announce daily nonstop service be tween BWI and PHX which will start January 6; new nonstop service be tween BWI and RSW (Ft. Myers) be ginning February 5; and new nonstop service between BWI and LAX which begins March 1. uled departures, arrival and elapsed times. The DOT’S rule allows exclusions from the report including maintenance delays/ cancellations reported to the FAA, and those consequential delays/cancellations attributed to the original maintenance delay of that aircraft and that ship routing. What is left, Tkbor said, is the “report- able operations” which are submitted to DOT on computer tape as “form 234.” This data is combined with the baggage report and consumer complaints and de nied boarding reports, and is then re leased by the DOT in its Monthly Air TYavel Consumer Report. “But our responsibilities do not stop here,” Tkbor said. “Performance codes must be assigned to all flights and sub mitted to the OAG (Official Airline Guide) which in turn includes them in its regu lar schedule computer-loads to the five major CRS vendors.” The codes must also be loaded for dis play on Piedmont’s CAREsystem. Rang ing from 0 to 9 (and “N” for new flights), the code reflects the percentile of on- time performance achieved by a specific flight. For instance, if a passenger chooses a flight with a time rating of 8, this indi cates that during the previous month that particular flight arrived within 15 minutes of schedule 80 to 89.9 percent of the time. Tkbor said that agents have been instructed on how to explain the figure to potential passengers requesting the rating information. According to the DOT, the report will help passengers “weigh price and qual ity of service in making purchasing deci sions” and “permit the consumers to make more informed choices.” “The public generally does not know that the figures many airlines are now reporting reflect the best on-time perfor mance the industry has experienced in months,” Tkbor added. “For Piedmont, our September quality of performance was the best on record for that month. And October was even better, the best on record for that month as well." However, Tkbor warned that DOT re ports in upcoming months—December especially—will more than likely com pare poorly with earlier reports. “Decem ber is historically the year’s worst performance month because of the heavy holiday traffic and weather," he said. “After all, we are trying to give the public complex information, but in easy to understand terms." Piedmonilor • December 1987
Piedmont Aviation Employee Newsletter
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Dec. 1, 1987, edition 1
4
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