Spirit Currently Number One Airline For On-time Arrivals

Image: Spirit Airlines Airbus. (photo via Boarding1Now / iStock Editorial / Getty Images Plus)
Image: Spirit Airlines Airbus. (photo via Boarding1Now / iStock Editorial / Getty Images Plus)
Alex Temblador
by Alex Temblador
Last updated: 1:51 PM ET, Sun December 16, 2018

Spirit Airlines is a low-cost airline that often gets a bad reputation, but they're improving their service and doing it in one of the best ways-by being on time.

In October, Spirit Airlines was only late 11 percent of the time, beating out Hawaiian Airlines in second place and Delta in third. To look at it another way, Spirit was on-time 89 percent of the time.

Alternatively, only 68.2 percent of Frontier Airlines flights were on-time putting the carrier in last place. Spirit even beat out bigger carriers like American Airlines whose flights were only prompt 78.8 percent of the time.

"We've been evolving over the last couple of years here to transform our airline so I'm really excited for our team to get a No. 1, going back three or four years ago it was a different story," Greg Christopher, vice president of Spirit's operations control center told Simple Flying.

In 2016, Spirit was rated the worst airline for on-time arrivals for 11 months in a row.

However, things seemed to turn around for Spirit when they made Bob Fornaro CEO, who incentivized on-time arrivals with executive and manager bonuses.

To be on time puts pressure on Spirit's costs and budget, so while they received the number one spot this time, they generally aim for 4th or 5th place.


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