IAH #1 in on-time performance, but why?
Anne at blogHouston has a post about IAH being the #1 on-time airport in the country in June. The Houston Airport System attributes it to the capital improvement program (i.e. the new runway), which is fair - that is certainly extremely helpful - but what's the more important reason? June was the driest ever on record, something like a total of 1/10th of an inch. No thunderstorms = no delays. The storms came back in July, and Houston and Continental felt it:During the month, Continental recorded a U.S. Department of Transportation on-time arrival rate of 69.5 percent. The carrier's on-time arrival rate was impacted by severe weather, which plagued the carrier's hub operations in both Newark and Houston throughout much of July. Despite these difficult weather conditions, Continental maintained a systemwide mainline completion factor of 99.6 percent.
posted by Tory Gattis @ 8:58 AM
3 Comments:
Good point! I hadn't thought of that.
Perhaps a good point, if the ratings were ONLY for June. They weren't:
The report, released Aug. 4, surveyed the nation’s top 33 major airports for on-time arrival and departure performances through June 2005 and found that IAH ranked as the #1 performer in all four rating categories: on-time departures and arrivals for the month of June 2005, and on-time arrivals and departures year-to-date through the same month.
The ratings weren't just for June.
Furthermore, the report indicated that year-on-year numbers had improved for IAH.
So whether or not you buy the Houston Airport System's explanation of the improvement, it's erroneous to suggest that weather over one month is the sole explanatory variable. It clearly is not.
Kevin,
Good point. My misreading and my apologies. That is a very good showing for IAH. Doubt we can keep it if the storms are as-usual for July, August, and Sept, but it's good to see at least one airport in this country is keeping up with demand.
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