With a spate of customer service issues it hopes is behind them and a busy summer travel season ahead, US Airways today said it is investing to improve customer service at airports, including hiring 1,000 new airport personnel and upgrading checkin kiosks.
US Airways today also reported a first-quarter profit of $66 million, despite a quarter that "was extremely difficult for us operationally," CEO Doug Parker said. "We were affected by two major storms that temporarily closed our Philadelphia hub and severely impacted our Northeast operations. Service disruptions also occurred during the quarter when we converted our two reservation systems to a single system."
US Airways is creating new passenger operations control centers at gateways in Philadelphia, Charlotte, Boston and Washington, D.C.—mimicking a similar center at its Phoenix hub. The centers monitor incoming flights for passengers with tight connection times to facilitate connections or rebook flights. The staff also prepares meal and hotel accommodations "if there are no other flight choices that day."
The merging of US Airways' and America West's reservation systems last month caused delays and other passenger issues, but CEO Doug Parker said the two platforms now are fully integrated and "our lines are back to normal"
(BTN, March 19). The carrier today noted that self-service kiosks at airports in the eastern region "have not operated with acceptable reliability standards," and next month US Airways will begin installing 600 new machines.
Meanwhile, the airline plans to introduce in June a new policy that will waive the $25 standby fee at the airport for Preferred Dividend Miles members.