Airline touting on-time record

Airline touting on-time record
US Airways' claims on N.Y.-Boston-D.C. market hit by rivals

By Matthew Brelis, Globe Staff, 2/26/2003

Seeking to derail Amtrak's increasing market share in the Northeast Corridor and to ground upstart American Eagle, US Airways today will start touting what it says is a superior on-time arrival record.

''There is no more competitive set of routes in the country than the LaGuardia-Boston-Washington triangle,'' said Stephen Usery, vice president of marketing and revenue management.

Shuttle service between the three cities has, historically, been highly profitable for the airlines. A one-way, walk-up fare to New York from Boston can cost as much as a discounted ticket to London.

US Airways yesterday said it will get the word out to travel agents and corporate clients, and post the shuttle's reliability record at airport ticket counters and gates. Usery said ''a team of workers'' monitored the daily performance of the US Airways Shuttle and its competitors by tracking flights on company websites. Amtrak trains were monitored, as well.

From the start of the year through last Wednesday, US Airways and Delta shuttles ''were neck and neck,'' he said, with 85 percent and 86 percent of on-time arrivals of flights, respectively.

On the Boston-New York shuttle only, Delta had an on-time record of 86 percent; US Airways scored 84 percent.

(A flight is considered on time if it arrives within 15 minutes of the scheduled arrival.)

''American Eagle is running around 65 percent on time, and Amtrak is about 65 percent,'' Usery said.

Dan Stessel, a spokesman for Amtrak, said US Airways needs to double-check its math. ''Our own on-time for the Northeast Corridor from Oct. 1 through [yesterday] morning is 80 percent,'' he said.

(The railroad considers a train on time if it arrives within 10 minutes of its scheduled arrival.)

''Eighty percent is not where we want to be; we want it to be 90 percent or 95 percent -- and we are working diligently to improve, but we still feel 80 percent is a good number.''

American Eagle spokeswoman Lisa Bailey questioned US Airways' methodology. ''It is not very scientific; they can miss a flight or two and that could skew the results,'' she said.

US Airways spokeswoman Amy Kudwa said the airline's analysis used figures from competitors' websites. ''This is data that they report publicly themselves. It was every weekday flight.''

For years, Delta and US Airways have battled to dominate the shuttle market. In late 2000, Amtrak introduced the first of its high-speed Acela trains, which travel between Boston and Washington. The fastest Acela train is scheduled to take three hours and 25 minutes to reach Pennsylvania Station in New York from Boston.

The competition got fiercer in October, when American Airlines started nearly hourly service, using American Eagle regional jets to fly between Logan International Airport in Boston and LaGuardia Airport in New York.

''One of the things we had been looking at was operational reliability, because that is front and foremost for passengers,'' Usery said. ''Many if not most of the shuttle passengers are doing day trips, and timing is critical to get where they are going and to get back home again.''

Usery said US Airways wanted to know where it stood and if it needed to improve. ''It turns out we are outperforming the competition,'' he said.

One area where Amtrak beat the airlines, according to US Airways, was in number of trips canceled.

The railroad canceled 2 percent of its trips, US Airways and Delta canceled between 5 and 6 percent, and American canceled about 8 percent, according to the US Airways study.

''The first thing that comes to my mind is how reliable we were last week at this time during the blizzard,'' said Amtrak's Stessel, noting that the railroad completed its runs, while the airlines were shut down.

Delta officials had no comment.

Stessel said the airlines see Acela as a threat. Amtrak data from April through June indicate the railroad has 53 percent of the New York-Washington market, and 37 percent of the Boston-New York market -- or more than any single airline has. Acela has nearly a quarter of the Boston-Philadelphia market, he said.