Performance Reportedly Suffered Following Schedule Adjustments Last Year

Data from the U.S. Department of Transportation shows that Southwest Airlines ranks near the bottom of on-time performance, with just under 73 percent of its flights arriving on schedule between April 2013 and April 2014 ... and the airline is hoping to make some adjustments to improve that statistic.

Bloomberg Businessweek reports that the decline came after a previous schedule adjustment made last August that scheduled more flights between 9:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. ... "when more people want to travel," according to Southwest's senior director of operational performance Steve Hozdulick.

But then, as the economy improved and more people started flying, the airline started seeing more customers than they had anticipated ... and flying the larger 737-800 meant that the planes took longer to get all the passengers on board. It all added up to many flights departing late, and arriving late at their destinations.

Now, Hozdulick said that it is loosening up its schedules in an effort to improve its on-time performance by year's end. That includes giving passengers more time to make connecting flights. He said he expects to see on-time arrivals up to between 83 and 85 percent.

He said the average time a flight is late is nine minutes, not "hours and hours." He said that if the DOT's benchmark were 23 minutes rather than 14 minutes to count as "on time" ... the airline's would have seen an 83 percent on-time rating during the period.

FMI: www.dot.gov, www.southwest.com