United Most On-Time for 2009? Count Us Skeptical

(MoneyWatch)  The final on-time performance numbers for 2009 are out, and United Airlines (UAUA) is claiming victory in the race. Unfortunately there are more than a few problems with that claim.

Looking at the DOT Air Travel Consumer Report, you'll see that United did have excellent on time performance for the year with 81 percent of flights arriving within 14 minutes of scheduled arrival. That's good enough to be number one -- if you alter your perception of reality.

The first problem is that United isn't looking at all airlines when it makes that claim. No, it's just looking at the big five legacy carriers, something it does make clear. But is that a valid comparison? Hardly.

On one hand, I agree with them. Hawaiian Airlines is the perennial number one, helped by the fact that they fly in the benign Hawaiian weather all year. So maybe that's not a fair comparison. But what about Southwest (LUV) and its 83 percent, along with Alaska (ALK) and its 82.9 percent? What's the argument for not including those?

Internally, the argument makes sense. The large hub-and-spoke carriers operate on a different model than the likes of Southwest. If weather hits O'Hare, United is screwed, but Southwest has a smaller percentage of traffic going through a single city. So when I see US Airways awarding bonuses based on on-time performance as compared to like carriers, I get it. It's hard to compete with different models that inherently allow for better performance.

But really, does the customer care? Nope, not at all. The customer cares who gets them to their destination on time. I'm fine with excluding a niche carrier like Hawaiian, but what about Southwest, an airline that carries more passengers in the US than United? That's not exactly fair. And then there's Alaska. They also operate on a hub-and-spoke model. Where's the love for them?

But this is just one of the problems with United's claim. The other one is that their ranking only looks at flights operated by United. An ever-increasing number of United flights are being operated by regional carriers. Take a look at Denver in December, for example. United had 4,563 flights land with an on-time percentage of 80.3. But SkyWest, which operates as United Express in Denver, had 4,799 arrivals with an on-time percentage of 68.3. You'll see the same thing happening at many hubs for all legacy carriers.

Image: JanetandPhil So, United's claim is questionable from a customer point of view. But part of the blame lies with the DOT. Stop telling us information based on operating carrier and instead focus on marketing carrier. Than maybe we can get some meaningful information flowing.