For SW travelers---are your flights always DELAYED?

[shopn24seven]

I have flown MANY times for many different airlines.
Whenever I fly SW, I always get delayed....It can be in Jan, March, August, whenever....
Just curious if that is the NORM...

 

[DebbieB]

They are about in the middle of the pack.

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2009-12-08-october-airline-performance_N.htm

AIRLINE PERFORMANCE, OCTOBER 2009

Carrier


On-Time Arrival Pct.


Hawaiian 93.4

Alaska 85.8

JetBlue 82.9

US Airways 82.1

United 81.7

Delta 79.4

Pinnacle 78.8

Mesa 78.4

Southwest 77.8

SkyWest 77.6

American 76.0

AirTran 75.3

Continental 75.1

American Eagle 74.0

Frontier 72.9

Comair 72.7

ExpressJet 72.6

Atlantic Southeast 71.6

Northwest 69.3

All Airlines 77.3


Source: Bureau of Transportation Statistics

 

[shopn24seven]

lol, and I was going to switch to Airtran....they are worse than SW.
Thanks for that link.

 

[Detailor]

We've flown Southwest many times (15-20 round trips) and had two delays of any significant time - once for about an hour because of an issue at another airport and once for about 3 hours because of equipment problems (I think they ended up bringing in another aircraft from JFK to Tampa to take our flight).

Dick Taylor

 

[pooch]

2 delays - 1 hr each both going home.

 

[dburg30]

One time Feb 08 I was delayed about 3 hours by mother nature. My other flights (I've flown enough trips to get a free flight so I would guess 8 trips) since dec 07 have always been on time if not early. And a lot of those also included layovers (not non-stop) so I had 2x the chances to have delays. Well I guess I need to count early dec this year when they cancelled flights to BWI, but again that was weather related.

 

[DonnaL]

We've flown SWA almost exclusively for the past six or so years from PHL to MCO and have never had an ontime problem flying from PHL/MCO, except one instance when we departed ontime, but, got about 30 minutes into the flight and needed to be diverted to BWI due to a mechanical problem. However, SWA was excellent about it........we were unable to continue on that particular equipment, but, another flight was due in within 30 minutes of our landing and scheduled to remain overnight at BWI. They just transferred all the baggage and had us onboard the other plane and on our way again in about an hour or so......pretty scary being diverted and all......landing with firetrucks waiting for us, but, it was handled very well. However, on the return trips from MCO to PHL.......we have been delayed far more than ontime. We once heard from someone in the airport/airline business that the majority of delays caused in the northeast corridor is due to the sheer number of flights in to and out of the major airports located in such a small airspace area (both NY airports, Newark, both Washington airports, plus Baltimore and PHL)

 

[Bobo912]

I've flown SWA dozens of times and I've been lucky so far. I've only had one delay of about 1 hour. It was weather related. I've actually landed ahead of schedule several times.

 

[monarchsfan16]

In roughly a dozen departures with SW, I've only ever had one delay. That was a result of PHL's horrible departure system, rather than SW. But then again, I've never had a flight depart PHL on time, regardless of airline. I've also noticed that SW seems to pad their flight times, and do what they can to make up time; that same flight that left PHL 45 mins late, arrived into MHT 15 mins early

 

[dburg30]

I think if airlines pad their times, they are smart. If they are early, people are super happy, if they are on time people are happy, if they are late, if it's just a few minutes people are happy. But lets admit, in normal operations, they have turnarounds down to a science, getting fueled and luggage swapped and any amenities (food / drink whatever). One plane we were going to get on landed about 20 minutes early early this month. They came on and told us that was our plane, but dont get excited as it was in way early and they didnt want to just sit us there. We still pushed back about 10-12 minutes early, but wound up just 'on time' because they had a line of about 6 planes or so in line to take off..

 

[atigeg]

all of the flight delays on SW that I have experienced over the last 5 years have been weather related. Mostly from where the plane originates.

The evening flights have the most delays including a 5 hour one two weeks ago in Chicago when MDW had issues and all incoming flights were diverted.

The way SW schedules its short turnarounds, once a plane is delayed, it most likely will be delayed the rest of the day.

 

[bumbershoot]

Gosh, no. One flight was delayed, then canceled altogether, because the plane couldn't get there b/c of weather elsewhere. They put me and DS on a flight leaving 5 minutes from then, and while that was a big rush (carrying all his stuff), it was easy easy easy!

 

[cruisingkat]

We have flown Southwest many times and have always arrived early - even if we left 10 minutes late.

 

[MARRAR]

I have personally flown SW over 20 plus times from Buffalo to and from many destinations Baltimore, Midway, Orlando, Tampa, Fort Lauderdale, Pheonix ,Las Vegas and never once had a delay long enough to make a plane late. I try to fly SW if I can - the other carriers here are always canceling or late

 

[jlewisinsyr]

I think the bigger question is what airport are you departing from, connecting to and ultimately arriving in?

I almost always get delayed regardless of airline if I connect through EWR, JFK or LGA, but no issues with PHL or DCA.

Another thing to consider is when you're flying, not so much the season, but time, the later your flight, the risk of delays increases.

 

[ford91exploder]

I usually fly out of MHT and I usually arrive EARLY, Delays are more a function of the airport and ATC than the airline. Since SWA generally flies point to point. i.e. MHT-MCO they can usually delay INSTEAD of cancel as they are not dependent on their fleet flying WEST in the AM and EAST in the PM via hubs.

So SWA usually has planes available even if they are delayed by weather or ATC problems where the network carriers have all their planes stuck in a hub like ATL,DFW or ORD

 

[disfan07]

I have flown SWA probably about 20 times in the past few years and we have never had any problems. We're actually always early. In fact, we just flew them last week going LAX-LAS-IAD and we land at IAD 45 minutes early.
I have flown SW out of Dulles, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach, Los Angeles, Burbank, Las Vegas, Albuquerque, Austin and BWI....never had problems....they are actually my first choice of airline

 

[bookwormde]

No significant delays out of PHL either

bookwormde

 

[shopn24seven]

LOL
My delays are always out of PHL and going back to PHL.

 

[disneyfaninaz]

The only significant delay I ever experienced with SWA was out of Orlando in 2008 after the FAA made SWA take all their planes out of commission and replace a part. Evidently it caused a domino effect for all flights. Otherwise, we usually always arrive early or on time.