More Adventures in Airline-Land

By Pascal Dennis

Last month I told you about a dreadful travel experience in the hands of Air Canada.

(A forty minute Toronto – Detroit flight took 8 hours. No explanation or apology from Air Canada – of course.)

Sadly, my travel agent had booked me on the same flight last week – and I endured another dreadful delay.

I’m shunning Air Canada where possible. But I’m pleased to say that their replacement, Delta Airlines, has been a nice surprise.

The last five Delta flights have departed & arrived on time. Delta staff have been helpful and courteous. At the end of each flight, they ask, “Please let us know how we’re doing and how we can improve.”

Five years ago Delta was the worst in customer service. But now it seems they’re fighting the good fight.

How Delta Uses Anticipatory Customer Service Technology To Make Flying Less Miserable

Delta Airlines And The Power Of Great Customer Service

Delta Sends Its 11,000 Agents to Charm School

Will Delta mess up from time to time? Of course.

But as long as they keep trying to get better, I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.

And so, a loud RASPBERRY to Air Canada.

And a laurel leaf to Delta Airlines – well done, and please continue.

Best regards,

Pascal

Pascal Dennis Bio

Misadventures in Airline-Land – Lessons Learned

By Pascal Dennis

Gravity – not just a good idea, it’s the law.

Physicist’s bumper sticker

I was reminded of this droll saying last week as I endured another misadventure in airline-land. We’ve all been there.

This time, a forty-minute Air Canada flight to Detroit was delayed 5 hours, which meant we arrived at 1:45 am. As the fickle gods would have it, I had a 2 ½ hour drive ahead of me.

Result: I got 90 minutes of sleep before an important work week. Of course, Air Canada, the culprit this time, offered no explanation, compensation or apology. Standard practice in the industry, no?

(A fellow traveller said she’d had the same experience the previous week – and was never flying Air Canada again.)

Anyhow, I wanted to highlight how the fundamentals of Production Physics apply here. In particular, the Laws of Utilization and Variation.

Key points:

1. We buffer variation with some combination of lead time, capacity or inventory
2. When utilizations exceed 80%, cycle times explode.

What do these have to do with my misadventures?

Well, the airlines face lots of variation – weather and the like. How do airlines choose to buffer it? Do they build in over-capacity? Or do they buffer with the customer’s lead time?

The answer’s clear, no? Rather than add some extra capacity, Air Canada has chosen to buffer variation by putting its customers through excruciating delays, and possibly substantial risk.

Awful delays usually mean a key system resource is over-utilized – where it’s an airline system, or an Emergency Department.

Do Air Canada’s executives lose any sleep over this?

As ever, front line staff were helpful and courteous, even though they bore the brunt of executive mismanagement. Thanks to them for doing their best in a lousy system.

Production physics and the Laws of Variation and Utilization are the law. Airline executives continue to ignore them.

Like many of my fellow passengers, I’ll shun Air Canada whenever practical.

Stay safe,

Pascal

Pascal Dennis Bio