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How late are planes?

Another NYT piece: Ugly Airline Math: Planes Late, Fliers Even Later citing some work by MIT's Cynthia Barnhart on airline and passenger delay. Is this due to weather, demand (and high load factors removing slack in the system), or poor labor relations?

The article focuses on Northwest and Continental, though the observations are I am sure more general. The 25 minute average delay seems low to me, but I am operating off anecdote here.

Posted by David Levinson on July 5, 2007 05:29 AM |

Comments

The NYT piece was great, but I think it overlooks another important component of the issue: namely, the lack of trained machinists qualified to service the planes both safely and efficiently. For example, check out this post at Shanghai Scrap:

http://shanghaiscrap.com/?p=174

You think that'd be happening if the Northwest machinists hadn't struck two years ago?

Posted by: AlanAm | August 2, 2007 10:04 PM

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