Spirit Airlines’ On-Time Arrivals Plan Backfired When It Cut Corners
Photo Credit: Spirit tried to make its schedule more efficient this summer, but the strategy shift has been problematic Pictured is one of the airline's Airbus A319s. Spirit Airlines
Skift Take
Every airline executive knows how to improve on-time performance. But there's a problem. It's expensive, since airlines usually must add slack to the schedule. Eventually the costs add up so airlines reduce the slack, hoping reliability will hold steady. Sometimes this works. Sometimes it doesn't.
Spirit Airlines will take a major cost hit later this year as it rejiggers operations to focus on reliability after a rough second quarter, the airline said in a statement Wednesday after markets closed.
After several years of disappointing customers with late flights and cancellations, Spirit switched operational strategies in 2016, with then-CEO Robert Fornaro prioritizing on-time performance over the fanatical cost-control favored by the previous regime. That strategy worked, and customers returned once they knew they were less likely to face long delays. In October, for the first time in recent memory, Spirit was the most on-time of any U.S. airline.
But Spirit is an ultra-low-cost carrier, and building slack into the schedule is costly. An airline that wants to juice on-time statistics usu
