The DOT has released December on-time performance and as you would imagine, it was awful. Anything stand out for you in this month’s report?
http://airconsumer.dot.gov/reports/2011/February/2011FebruaryATCR.PDF

There are plenty of people out there who think the airlines are trying to “cheat” when they pad their flight schedules to account for delays, but I don’t get it. That is not what’s going on here. What they’re really doing is trying to delicately balance operational efficiency and customer satisfaction, believe it or not.

Scott McCartney at the Wall Street Journal took this on recently and started digging around. Evan at FlightCaster took it one further and analyzed all flight times. So what’s the result. Since 1996, schedule times have bumped up 8 minutes on average.

Of course, that number isn’t very relevant. You need to look at the biggest pain points to see where the most egregious increases are. JFK saw an average 27 minute increase on departures while Continental’s late afternoon departures from Chicago to Newark bumped up a whopping 45 minutes. My question is . . . so what?

Some passengers think this is an evil plot to make it look like they have a stellar on time record, but that makes absolutely no sense. First of all, think about it from a passenger standpoint. If you book a flight leaving at 8a and arriving at 4p, isn’t that what you expect? Does it matter if you arrive a couple minutes early?

Sure, it’s annoying when you arrive 45 minutes early and your ride is nowhere to be found, but that’s an anomaly. Think about it from the airline side. Do they want to pad their schedule? Absolutely not. If they could schedule their flights to take less time, they could cram more flights into a day and bring their costs down. That would be fantastic. So why do they pad?

Well think about it. Gate-to-gate flight times have actually gone up in the last 15 years. As airports have become more crowded, they’ve been forced to spend more time taxiing or holding in the air. And it’s not just blanket changes like that. Weather patterns matter as well. If you have particularly stormy time of year, you might build in some extra time for circling. During the winter, the airlines have longer block times on westbound flights across the country because the headwinds are stronger.

This is a science. The airlines have to delicately balance the desire to cram as many flights in a day as possible with the need to present passengers with an on time experience. People and computers are constantly working on trying to find the optimal block times, but that’s easier said than done. Things change often, and that means they can never be perfectly right. But they certainly aren’t trying to cheat.

Cranky is on vacation, but I did pre-schedule some posts on BNET. Here are the ones from last week. We get back in town tonight, so I’ll be back live on the blog on Monday.
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Airline Executives Discuss Foreign Ownership, Unbundling, Partnerships, and Consolidation
I promise, this is it . . . the last half of my last post on the Phoenix Aviation Symposium.

Pratt & Whitney Geared Turbofan In the Spotlight
I’ve talked about it before, but the Pratt & Whitney Geared Turbofan is getting closer to reality. But when will we really know if it’s a success?

Southwest’s Load Planning System Improves Baggage Processes
Things happening under the wing are easy to overlook by the traveling public, but sometimes they can bring big benefits.

Alliance Panel at the Phoenix Aviation Symposium
The alliances discussion was one of the more interesting panels, I thought. The talk centered around why and even if alliances are worthwhile.

Modernizing the Fleet: Phoenix Aviation Symposium
So when is the right time to buy new airplanes? Credit is hard to come by and people are waiting for new technology. When will that happen?

Aircraft Manufacturers, Regulators Fight Over the Environment
A discussion on the environment turned heated as everyone tried to discuss the best way to make things better. Unsurprisingly, there was no consensus.

The Importance of American’s Wi-fi Announcement
American’s decision to expand wireless internet to most of its domestic fleet is a very important one for the US airline industry. And that’s good news for travelers.

JetBlue’s President and COO Russ Chew Talks About the Airline’s Transformation
I didn’t just sit down with JetBlue CEO Dave Barger last week. I also spoke with Russ Chew to talk about the airline’s internal transformation.

Video Presentations from PhoCusWright
I know I said I was done with PhoCusWright posts, but I guess I lied. This is just a quick one to point you to actual videos of the Travel Innovation Summit presentations.

Premium Travel Falls Off a Cliff
Bad news from IATA as premium travel sales have fallen significantly. It’s once again time for the airlines to start getting anxious about demand.

Allegiant Bares All in Investor Presentations
Allegiant filed a bunch of investor day presentations with the SEC. It’s definitely worth flipping through to see what they’ve been up to.

Virgin America Says Profitability “Could” Be Pushed to 2011
Virgin America CEO David Cush said that the economy may push profitability to 2011. You would have thought that plunging oil prices would have helped, but I guess not. They’ve also said they won’t grow for a couple more years.

Delta’s Revenue Forecast Shrinks for the Fourth Quarter
Let’s dig in to Delta’s announcement that it has now slashed fourth quarter unit revenue projections. It’s not a good sign, needless to say.

What Made US Airways Reinstate Their Mileage Minimum and Bonuses for Elites?
Lots of airlines have backed away from frequent flier program changes lately, but US Airways waited the longest before making the switch. Are customers finally voting with their wallets?

Minimal Thanksgiving Delays, but Don’t be Lulled Into Complacency
Thanksgiving delays have been sparse so far. That means this is the right time to work on air traffic control reform before things get worse again.

Branson Builds the First Commercial Airport in the US Without Government Money
Branson Airport is rising on the mountaintops of the Ozarks. What’s so special? It’s the first commercial US airport that will operate without federal funds.

More on the Benefits of Building an Airport Without Government Money
Following up on my earlier post, let’s explore the possibilities of privately financing an airport. Could it actually work?