Pan Am clipper, November 18, 1987

              CLIPPER
November 18, 1987---------
DOT Figures Fail to Present Complete Picture
of Pan Am Performance
Pan Am ended up in ninth place among the 14 largest U. S. airlines in the first on-time dependability report issued by the Department of Transportation. The figures, released to the public on November 10, were for the airlines’ September on-time performances. Beginning in December, these figures are to be included in airline computer reservations systems to allow consumers to compare an airline’s on-time performance in a particular market sector. The
September figures will not be included in the CRS data.
In keeping track of on-time performance, the DOT is focusing only on arrival times. Flights that arrive at their destination within 15 minutes of published schedule are declared to be on-time. Pan Am, which has followed a corporate policy of allowing a fifteen minute tolerance in arrival times, also places strong emphasis on on-time departures, maintaining that the best
way to ensure an on-time arrival is to have an on-time departure. However, under the DOT reporting regulation, punctual departures are not taken into consideration.
The DOT reporting requirement also involves only U. S. domestic flights. None of Pan Am’s international flights can be included in the tally and that is largely what is responsible for Pan Am finishing in ninth place among the nations fourteen largest carriers, each of which has a considerably larger domestic route structure than Pan Am. American Airlines ranked first in the 14-airline ranking with 84.5 percent of all flights arriving within fifteen minutes of schedule. US Air ranked last with 67.4 percent of its flights arriving on-time. Pan Am’s domestic on-time arrivals for September finished 74.3 percent on-time.
In many respects, the data submitted by Pan Am was not comparable with data submitted by some other carriers. Pan Am included the downline impact of mechanical delays in the numbers supplied to the DOT. Where mechanical delays are not counted in the statistics, Pan Am did include delays on subsequent flights that were caused by earlier mechanical problems. For example, if a flight scheduled to operate from JFK to ATL to MIA arrived in Atlanta late because of a mechanical problem in New York, the subsequent late arrival in Miami was driven by the late-arriving flight segment between JFK and Atlanta, not as the result of a mechanical problem on the Atlanta to Miami sector. Pan Am intends to modify its method (Continued on p. 4)
Neerja Bhanot Wins Flight Safety Heroism Award
Neerja Bhanot, the Pan Am Purser who died while shielding three young children during the September 1986 hijacking of Clipper 73 in Karachi, was posthumously awarded the 1987 Flight Safety Foundation heroism award at the Foundation’s 40th Annual Convention held in Tokyo in October. The award (left), known as the Graviner Sword, donated by the Graviner Company of England, was accompanied by a framed proclamation that details Neerja’s heroic acts during the tragedy. The award was accepted on Neerja’s behalf by her Parents, Mr. and Mrs. Harish Bhanot (right), who were congratulated in an emotional embrace by a flight attendant delegate to the convention. In accepting the presitgious award, Mr. Bhanot praised Pan Am and the many generous Pan Am employees who donated to the trust fund established to perpetuate Neerja’s memory. The fund will provide two awards annually, one for heroism in the line of international airline duty and the other to an Indian woman who has triumphed over adversity. In his acceptance remarks, Mr. Bhanot lashed out at terrorism, but maintained that Neerja’s life was not lost in vain. Mr. and Mrs. Bhanot were given a standing ovation by the more than 600 people in attendance.
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