A fantastic February of operational excellence

A much-improved operational month shows our resilience — and our focus on bags is paying off. Here's a note I shared with our #AATeam earlier today, recapping our February results.

Fellow team members,

Our operation shined in February following a challenging start to the year. Thanks to you, we posted our best February in years for operational metrics across the board. And, we did that while caring for more customers and with more flying than the same time last year and the year before.

I’m especially proud of the improvements to our baggage handling performance, which continues to be a key area of focus for us in 2024. We achieved our lowest February mishandled baggage rate (MBR) since 2017, beating our goal by 15% with a 26% year-over-year improvement. Thanks to innovations like our bag sortation and advancement initiatives, as well as our one bag room initiative at DFW, we continue to set ourselves up for success. DFW, which sees an outsized volume of checked bags, earned a nearly 50% year-over-year MBR improvement. ORD delivered an improvement of more than 40% year over year.

Here are some of our other operational highlights:

• Getting our customers where they need to go by minimizing cancellations: This was our best-ever February for combined completion factor and controllable completion factor. We led the major network competitors in completion factor for the month and had seven mainline zero-cancel days. Our regional operation achieved a whopping 18 zero-cancel days, including a record 10-day streak and zero controllable cancellations for the entire month.
• Running an on-time operation: We posted the best February combined on-time departure (D-0) and on-time arrival rate (A+14) since 2017, finishing second among our major network competitors in both metrics. Our regional operation achieved its best-ever February on-time performance metrics.

We’ve raised the bar on what it means to operate a safe and a reliable airline. Last month was an excellent example of that, and our performance sets us up well for the months ahead. March will see higher customer volumes as spring break travel ramps up across our hubs. As you care for these customers, please ensure you prioritize safety above all else as we work together to run the most reliable airline in the business.

Speaking of safety, I encourage you to think about the team members who exemplify safety leadership and consider nominating them for our Safety Champion award. You can read more about this prestigious honor on Jetnet. Nominations close March 15.

Thanks for all you do. Here’s to a great March!

David