At 03:13 PM 5/5/2003 -0700, Mike Burris wrote: >I heard, perhaps here, that the reason the industry is leaving and >arriving on time is because there are fewer planes out there in service >because fewer passengers are flying. Not hard then to understand this >statement. I understand but don't like the twin obsessions of flights leaving on time and arriving on time, especially with leaving on time. What matters to me is what percentage of passengers get to their destination on time. If a flight leaves late but arrives on time, I'd say, "no foul." Similarly, I don't care if a UA flight from ORD to YVR leaves on time if its on-time departure means that I miss connecting to it from a IAD-ORD flight that was a bit late. OK, so sometimes I hold a grudge for a missed connection almost three years ago. :-) But it illustrates why on-time departures are something I just don't care about. Granted, if there are en-route delays, an on-time departure suggests that a late arrival isn't the airline's fault, but the effect on the passenger is the same. I don't remember where I first heard it, but I'm very fond of the adage, "Be careful of what you measure, because that's what you'll get." Since the FAA publishes data on on-time departures, we get missed connections. I can understand why airlines want something to counter-act late arrival data, but as a passenger, on-time departures just aren't a meaningful metric to me. Sigh... >Mike Burris >Cambridge, Mass Nick