A comparative analysis of turnaround scheduling management between Delta Air Lines and American Airlines

Kurzfassung

This capstone project examines why Delta Air Lines consistently performs better than American Airlines in on-time performance (OTP) at their main hubs, and what American Airlines can do to close the gap. Using publicly available flight data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) for 2024, the study compares arrival and departure records of American Airlines at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) and Delta Air Lines at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL). American recorded an OTP of 76.15% compared Delta’s 85.83, a gap of 9.68 percentage points. Analysis carried out in R found that less than four percent of this gap is due to weather and environmental differences between the two airports with the rest being due to scheduling decisions: a congested departure schedule, flights overrunning their block time and shorter turnarounds at DFW. Together, these factors meant that nearly half of every delay minute at DFW came from a previous flight arriving late compared to about one-third at ATL. A simulation of three practical scheduling changes showed that American could raise it hub OTP by 5.82 percentage points, closing roughly 60% of the gap through scheduling adjustments alone.