A plane is refueled at the Casper/Natrona County International Airport Jan. 3, 2018. United Airlines will be adding a fifth flight from the airport to Denver later this month.
It’s the airport equivalent of road rage: You race to your gate on a tight connection to see the door shut and your plane inching backward.
One reason gate agents are so strict about that closed door is an airline metric called “D-0” (D-zero), which designates a flight that departs at exactly the scheduled time. The industry-and government regulators-rigorously monitor this metric to see which carriers operate reliably and which don’t.
Aiming to alleviate at least some of this pain, United Airlines is testing a program called “Dynamic D-0” at its Denver hub to empower gate agents to delay a departure to accommodate customers and employees rushing to a connecting flight.
The system “tells an employee, tells customers, ‘Hey, here’s five or six customers that are coming to this connection; they’re going to be five minutes late, but we know we can make up the time in flight on this particular flight,'” United President Scott Kirby said Tuesday at an investor conference. “Sometimes we can’t, and we don’t hold the airplane.”
Typically, about a quarter of United’s flights arrive 10 or more minutes early, meaning they can make up a slight departure delay in transit. The new software examines flights in this group and coordinates the data with United’s connecting passenger roster as a way to decide which departures can be allowed to slip. United’s operations center then identifies the flights to hold and alerts gate agents.
The testing has saved thousands of connecting passengers from missing a flight, Kirby said. The new system’s flight holds are likely to have “minimal impact on performance as the flights are expected to arrive on-time, even with the hold,” United spokeswoman Erin Benson said. United will expand the automation to other large airports later this year, and eventually use it on all of its flights, mainline and regional, worldwide.
Punctual departures have become far more critical as U.S. airlines work to boost their schedule reliability, an attribute that such carriers as Delta Air Lines and Spirit Airlines have increasingly touted as a way to win customers. Industrywide, 79.1 percent of U.S. airline flights arrived on time last year through November, the latest month for which federal statistics are available.
The world’s largest carrier, American Airlines, has focused zealously on its D-0 performance after struggling with delayed flights for more than year.
The company, which ranked seventh of 10 carriers for on-time flying last year (77.3 percent) has set a D-0 target of 69.7 percent for 2019. Delays of several minutes for one flight can ripple through the hub-and-spoke carrier’s system, jeopardizing connecting operations later in the day, said Ross Feinstein, an American spokesman.
Some American pilots and gate agents have complained that the airline’s push to improve its D-0 rate has left passengers standing at gates and, in some cases, bags belonging to those who made it aboard were not loaded on aircraft.
“One minute late off the gate being a failure is a setup for a pressure cooker that does not serve our passengers well,” said Dennis Tajer, an American captain and spokesman for the airline’s pilots union. “We’ve seen it before, where we left passengers behind at the gate just to get off the gate on time.”
Feinstein said those left at gates are usually American employees who are flying for free.
Chicago-based United, which was in sixth place through November (77.9 percent), has made better on-time flight performance a crucial aspect of its effort to lure back customers lost during its rocky merger with Continental.
With assistance from Bloomberg’s Mary Schlangenstein.
Follow @ChiTribBusiness on Facebook and @ChiTribBiz on Twitter.
At the North Central West Virginia Airport (CKB), we’re more than just an airport. We’re the starting point to your adventure and an ending point after a business trip.
We’re the front door to the community. An unparalleled economic engine employing thousands of your neighbors. We’re your community partner. A place where memories begin and dreams are born. CKB is a place where the sky is the limit; literally.
At the North Central West Virginia Airport, we exist to serve as your gateway to the things which matter the most to you.
As the premier, public-use airport located in Bridgeport, West Virginia, we serve all of the mid-Ohio valley. Home to the longest commercial service runway in West Virginia, CKB is conveniently situated in the middle of the I-79 High Tech corridor, providing easy access between Charleston and Pittsburgh.
The Airport is owned and operated by the Benedum Airport Authority and is currently served by two commercial airlines; Allegiant and United Airlines. At CKB, our passengers and customers are our No. 1 priority. Your successful travel experiences are key to our success and we aim to please.
Allegiant offers less than daily service to Orlando/Sanford, FL and seasonal, flights to Myrtle Beach, S.C. United Airlines offers global connectivity through their hubs of Chicago O’Hare and Washington Dulles.
Beginning this spring, United Airlines will offer an additional weekend flight to Washington Dulles providing even more flexibility for local travelers. Whether you have a business trip planned or are looking to book a family vacation, North Central West Virginia Airport (CKB) and our airline partners can help you get there.
With passenger amenities such as free parking, short security lines, and an easy to use terminal, north central West Virginia travelers can fly comfortably from the convenience of their local airport. World-renowned West Virginia University is a mere 30 minutes from the airport making CKB a fantastic option for Mountaineer fans to use when visiting friends, family, or taking in a game.
In addition, the Airport is a significant economic engine for the region with a local economic output of over $1 billion (as found in a 2014 study). Home to the growing Mid-Atlantic Aerospace Complex (MAAC), CKB proudly provides first-rate maintenance, overhaul, manufacturing, and training services for the aerospace industry and is home to world renown tenants. These tenants, in turn, employ the best and brightest individuals allowing our regional population to grow and thrive.
At CKB, we are much more than an airport; we are the region’s front door to West Virginia. For more information on the airport or to book travel, visit flyckb.com today. We’ll be waiting for you.
United has announced a new unlikely business policy, delaying their own flights on purpose to ensure passengers make connections.
This is one of many new policies being launched by United Airlines President Scott Kirby to put customers first, above on-time statistics and other metrics.
United’s first Boeing 787-10 entered regular service earlier this month. Photo: United Airlines.
Speaking at the JP Morgan Aviation, Transportation, Industrials Conference, Scott Kirby revealed that to win customers business, United will be focusing on better service rather than lowest cost.
This means a reshuffle of United’s core four metrics; Aircraft Safety as number one, followed by Customer Comfort as a close second, with both Operations and Efficiency bringing up the rear.
United Airlines Boeing 737. Photo: United Airlines.
As fellow publication View From The Wing discussed, United intends to roll out this comfort focus with the following new policies:
The United Polaris cabin. Source: United
Also during the conference, Scott also discussed how previous United management made the mistake of leaving JFK airport. He lambasted that it costed United lucrative international contracts for passengers flying onwards to London and other European destinations. Whether or not this is a precursor to United to operating back to JFK remains to be seen.
“You can probably personally blame me, at least to some degree, for the fact that United pulled out,” Scott Kirby in 2017. “When I was at American Airlines, we were consciously trying to push United out of JFK. That was our goal.”
What do you think of these new comforts for United passengers? Let us know in the comments.
SANTA ROSA, Calif., March 6, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Charles M. Schulz — Sonoma County Airport (STS) is excited to celebrate United Airlines’ daily nonstop service to and from Denver, Colorado. The inaugural Denver flight is scheduled to land at STS at 11:57 a.m., and depart STS at 12:30 p.m. beginning Friday, March 8. Celebratory signage, flowers and balloons will be placed throughout the Airport, and Denver passengers will be presented with Wine Country goody bags.
The United Airlines service from Charles M. Schulz – Sonoma County Airport (STS) to Denver International Airport (DEN) has been in the works for several years. Expansion of air service to/from Wine Country is a strategic move for both United and STS. Denver and Sonoma County are popular tourism and business destinations, and Denver is a major United hub where STS travelers can connect to over 145 destinations on United Airline’s expansive worldwide network. Tickets for these daily flights are available for purchase at http://www.united.com.
“We’re excited to launch this new flight between Sonoma and Denver, giving Wine Country residents numerous options to connect through our midcontinent Denver hub to destinations all over the globe,” United President of California Janet Lamkin said. “Additionally, the new flight makes it easier for customers in the Midwest and East Coast to plan Wine Country vacations. We are committed to connecting our California customers to all the places they want to go, while bringing the world to California.”
“These Denver flights into Sonoma County are the result of many years of effort by multiple partners toward the goal of service to a midcontinent hub. Through Denver, the Midwest and East Coast are just one stop away from STS. Cheers to a job well done, and to a flight that I personally have looked forward to!” Fourth District Supervisor James Gore said.
“Denver represents an exciting hub for connecting both domestic and international visitors to Sonoma County,” says Claudia Vecchio, president/CEO, Sonoma County Tourism. “We applaud the airport team for continuing to expand service into Santa Rosa and working to enhance partnerships with major carriers such as United Airlines.”
“We are thrilled that United Airlines is making a new investment at Charles M. Schulz – Sonoma County Airport,” said Peter Rumble, CEO of the Santa Rosa Metro Chamber. “It is gratifying for airlines to see what we already know – Santa Rosa is a great place to do business. United Airlines’ expanded schedule supports our tourism and technology sectors and gives locals a great option for traveling to Colorado or internationally.”
Media invited to greet arriving passengers
Media that would like to attend the event should contact STS Marketing Specialist Gina Stocker at Gina.Stocker@sonoma-county.org or call (707) 565-7241 by Thursday, March 7 at 5 p.m. to arrange airfield attendance.
About Charles M. Schulz – Sonoma County Airport (STS)
Located in the heart of Northern California’s world-renowned Wine Country, STS is the only airport that offers scheduled air service into the North Bay region. Daily nonstop flights include: Alaska Airlines to Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, Portland, and Seattle; American Airlines to Dallas (2019), Los Angeles (2019), and Phoenix Sky Harbor; seasonal flights on Sun Country Airlines to Minnesota and Las Vegas, and United Airlines to Denver and San Francisco. All Airlines offer a wide range of connecting flights to destinations in the continental U.S., Mexico, and beyond.
The Airport features six on-site rental car agencies, convenient ground transportation, easy and affordable parking with electric vehicle (EV) charging stations, the on-site Sky Lounge Steakhouse Sushi Bar, and much more.
For further information, journalists are asked to contact Airport Manager Jon Stout at jon.stout@sonoma-county.org or (707) 565-7243.
For additional airport information, follow Charles M. Schulz – Sonoma County Airport on Facebook and Twitter.
SOURCE Charles M. Schulz – Sonoma County Airport
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Wires
* Delta, Lufthansa, United, ANA best at managing climate risks
* TPI urges airlines to do more to address warming (Adds Japan Airlines comments)
OSLO, March 5 (Reuters) – Airlines are doing too little in the fight against global warming, a study funded by investors with $13 trillion of assets under management said on Tuesday.
The fast-growing sector accounts for two percent of world greenhouse gas emissions and should do more to manage risks of climate change, the Transition Pathway Initiative (TPI) said in a review of 20 of the world’s biggest listed airlines.
It rated Delta, Lufthansa, United Airlines and ANA Holdings as the best performers at managing the business risks and opportunities of climate change. But all could do more.
“Investors have a clear message to the aviation sector: When it comes to carbon performance they must be in it for the long haul,” said Faith Ward, co-chair of the TPI on behalf of the British Environment Agency Pension Fund.
“Investors do care … it’s about encouraging disclosure so we can make informed decisions,” she told Reuters.
TPI, which seeks to assess the performance of businesses in cutting carbon, groups 40 investors with $13 trillion under management, including BNP Paribas and Legal General Investment Management. Its research is by the London School of Economics’ Grantham Research Institute.
More fuel-efficient planes, wider use of biofuels and ensuring that planes fly at full capacity would help to limit emissions.
TPI separately said easyJet and Alaska Air now had the most efficient fleets among the top 20 listed airlines, judged by their emissions per passenger kilometre flown.
At the other end of that scale, ANA, Japan Airlines, Korean Air and Singapore Airlines have the highest emissions intensities, it said.
Asked about the data, a Japan Airlines official said: “We are aiming to release our CSR (corporate social responsibility) measures toward 2030 in the next fiscal year.” ANA, Korean and Singapore did not immediately reply to a Reuters’ request for comment.
Lead author Professor Simon Dietz of the Grantham Research Institute said some airlines had adopted broad industry goals to cap net carbon emissions at 2020 levels, or to halve net emissions by 2050 from 2005 levels.
But that focus on net emissions often meant airlines could buy permits to emit carbon dioxide, rather than make cuts themselves.
“The issue is that we don’t know how much they are going to reduce their own flight emissions compared to buying offsets,” he told Reuters.
Dietz also said there were other effects of aviation apart from carbon dioxide that need more research. Contrails, for instance, may can cause high-level clouds that trap heat.
Under the 2015 Paris climate agreement, almost 200 governments agreed to cut emissions to help avert more floods, droughts and rising sea levels. They promised to “enhance public and private sector participation” in cutting emissions. (Reporting by Alister Doyle, with extra reporting by Junko Fujita in Tokyo and Heekyong Yang in Seoul, Editing by Mark Potter and Jane Merriman)
NEW YORK, New York (WABC) — Runners are you ready? The United Airlines NYC Half is the One to Run. It’s coming up March 17th, and WABC-TV, Channel 7 Eyewitness News will offer complete coverage, including:
* Pro race look-ins and interviews along the course with inspiring runners
* A Pro race live video stream available here on abc7ny.com, on nyrr.org, and on Facebook and Twitter
* A full recap show to air at 1pm on ABC7NY.
Read more about the day’s coverage in this news release from the New York Road Runners and ABC7NY.
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WABC-TV is teaming up with New York Road Runners and the co-executive producers Endeavor Content to offer viewers in New York City and around the world three different ways to watch the 2019 United Airlines NYC Half.
The 14th running of the United Airlines NYC Half — on Sunday, March 17 — will take more than 25,000 runners on a 13.1-mile park-to-park tour from Brooklyn to Manhattan.
The race starts in Prospect Park and passes through iconic New York City landmarks, including Grand Army Plaza, the United Nations, Grand Central Terminal and Times Square.
Runners end the race near the iconic TCS New York City Marathon finish line in Central Park.
Viewers can watch the race in three ways:
-Channel 7 Eyewitness News, starting at 6:00 a.m. ET, will offer coverage of the race, including features and interviews with inspiring runners, and live professional athlete race look-ins. This will be made available on WABC-TV, Channel 7 and the ABC app in the New York area and at abc7ny.com.
-Pro Race Livestream, live at 7:10 a.m. ET, will cover the men’s and women’s professional athlete races on multiple ABC7 and NYRR social and digital media channels, including abc7ny.com, @abc7NY on Twitter, and /abc7NY on Facebook; and nyrr.org, @nyrr on Twitter and /New York Road Runners on Facebook.
-ABC7 Race Recap Show, airing from 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. ET, will offer condensed coverage of the men’s and women’s professional athlete races, along with features and interviews with inspiring runners. This show will be made available on WABC-TV, Channel 7 in the New York area and abc7ny.com.
The event will have a star-studded professional athlete field that features nine Olympians and nine Paralympians, including all four defending champions in Ben True (USA), Buze Diriba (ETH), Ernst van Dyk (RSA), and Manuela Schr (SUI), along with 2018 Boston Marathon champion Des Linden (USA) and Olympic silver medalist Paul Chelimo (USA) who will be making his much-anticipated debut at the half-marathon distance.
In addition to the professional athletes and 25,000 citizen runners covering the 13.1 miles from Brooklyn to Manhattan, nearly 1,000 youth runners will participate in 1200-meter heats through Times Square in the Rising New York Road Runners race at the United Airlines NYC Half. NYRR is celebrating 20 years of providing free youth running programs, serving nearly 250,000 youth across the country annually through Rising New York Road Runners.
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About New York Road Runners (NYRR)
NYRR’s mission is to help and inspire people through running. Since 1958, New York Road Runners has grown from a local running club to the world’s premier community running organization. NYRR’s commitment to New York City’s five boroughs features races, community events, free youth running initiatives and school programs, the NYRR RUNCENTER featuring the New Balance Run Hub, and training resources that provide hundreds of thousands of people each year, from children to seniors, with the motivation, know-how, and opportunity to Run for Life. NYRR’s premier event, and the largest marathon in the world, is the TCS New York City Marathon. Held annually on the first Sunday in November, the race features 50,000 runners, from the world’s top professional athletes to a vast range of competitive, recreational, and charity runners. To learn more, visit www.nyrr.org.
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Any landing you can walk away from is a good one, as the old saw goes—but it’s usually better when you don’t have to have emergency services personnel help you off the plane. And that goes double for times when the firefighters don’t need a ladder to reach the boarding door. Still, on the ground is on the ground—which is a place it seems likely that the passengers and crew of United Airlines Flight 4933 are very happy to be right now, after their commuter jet landed off the runway in rural Maine, ripping the landing gear off in the process.
The United Embraer EMB-145XR commuter jet, which was operated by regional carrier CommutAir under the United Express banner, took off from Newark Liberty International Airport this morning at 9:23am, according to Flight Aware, on a route that was scheduled to see it landing and at the gate in Presque Isle, Maine, at 11:30am.
Things, quite obviously, did not go according to plan. According to WABI, the plane slid off the runway to the right after landing, apparently causing the landing gear to be sheared off as it came to a stop.
Three of the 28 passengers reportedly suffered minor injuries, as did the pilot.
Pictures posted to the Crown of Maine Facebook page show the crashed Embraer in vivid detail, lying flat on its belly on the snow. One image shows what appears to be fire fighters from the Presque Isle Fire Department aiding individuals off the aircraft, the damaged nose of the commuter jet clearly visible; the second shows the rear of the plane, with one set of the rear landing gear jammed up against the port side engine several feet above the ground.
‘Big Bang Theory’ actress Mayim Bialik took to social media Sunday evening to share her frustrations with United Airlines. Bialik was upset with a United employee for turning her away from her flight and allegedly ‘shutting the gate in [her] face.’ Bialik shared her theory as to why she may have been treated this way, saying that perhaps the worker ‘just doesn’t like ‘The Big Bang Theory.”
“Big Bang Theory” actress Mayim Bialik has a few theories about why she was turned away from her United Airlines flight on Sunday evening.
Bialik, 43, told her Twitter followers she was upset with the carrier after an airline employee allegedly “shut the gate in [her] face” at a Houston airport, and she subsequently remarked that perhaps the worker who did it “just doesn’t like ‘The Big Bang Theory.’”
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“To the @UnitedAirlines flight attendant who shut the boarding gate in my face. I made my connecting flight in Houston,” Bialik tweeted just before 7 p.m., local time.
“[I]t was a tight squeeze but You said there were plenty of open seats. [W]hen you saw my carry on suitcase you said there was no room and shut the door in my face.”
The actress went on to claim that five other passengers from her connecting flight were allowed on the plane, all with carry-on luggage. Bialik further suggested that the crew could have placed her luggage in the first-class she reserved, and allowed her to sit in an unreserved economy seat.
“Maybe the first class seat I was supposed to sit in could have held it and I would have gladly sat in all of the open seats anywhere on that plane,” she wrote.
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Bialik also took her frustrations to Instagram, where she elaborated on the alleged incident and again put forth her hypotheses as to why the gate agent didn’t allow her on the flight.
“Maybe she hates [‘The Big Bang Theory’]. Maybe she was having a bad day. Maybe she hates women who look like they’re going to cry,” Bialik wrote.
“Now my suitcase is broken from running so hard and aggressively, my asthma is super angry and random people think I’m a prima donna because as she shut the door I said ‘I have a first class seat!’ I didn’t mean I deserve it more, I meant can my suitcase sit in my first class seat and I’ll sit anywhere else? Not a good day for me and @united,” she added.
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In a statement to Fox News, a representative for United Airlines says the carrier is reviewing the case.
“We were able to get Ms. Bialik on the next flight to Los Angeles and we are reviewing what happened with our team in Houston,” a spokesperson confirmed.