US airway ranked number one in on-time performance, luggage handling and client satisfaction among the major network bearer for May according to the latest transportation system Department study — a rare trifecta. It’s even more impressive, considering that just a few years ago, the air hose consistently ranked near the underside of the listing I asked Kerry Hester, the airline’s vice president for reserve and client service planning, to shed some light on the numbers, and what they mean to passengers. You can read a related interview about US Airways arrested development on Book of Numbers with Robert Isom here.

How did you do it?

Our employee did it. I am very proud of my 31,000 co-worker who have worked hard to run a safe and reliable airline, while focusing on pickings great aid of our customers. They deserve the credit for achieving this important milestone.

OK. How did they do it?

This was a significant accomplishment for us that only a smattering of other air hose have shared in the past decade It has taken a great deal of hard work to get to this point, but we’ve done information technology by institutionalizing a culture where our employee understand that every on-time departure, every bag and every client interaction really counts.

We beat United in on-time public presentation by just a half pct point, and bettered Continental by just decade bag and 8 complaints. Simply put, every contact that we have with our client really brand a difference.

Leading the industry in on-time going is the key to our success, and we do it? without padding our agenda like some other airline bash Our expressage mate also contributed to these results, with record-setting public presentation in Apr in on-time departures, on-time arrivals, and pass completion factor followed by strong consequence in each of these mensuration again in May.

The one number that I find most interesting, as a client advocate, is consumer complaints — just 53 for the month.

This is the first time since our 2005 uniting that we ranked first in client satisfaction.

Over the past couple of years we have emerged as a consistent leader in on-time and luggage handling performance; landing the lowest client complaint ratio in May is a huge validation of the investing we started making in 2007 to permanently improve our dependableness and efficiency.

Tell me a little bit more about how you — sorry, your employee — did it?

Technology is critical, and we have invested in several important tool to help us serve our client punter These include bag scanner that now path more than 90 pct of our passengers’ bags, and client relationship management tool that provide real time access to client issue by the squad that need the information the most – whether that be client relations, drome client service or maintenance.

We’re responding to client feedback quickly – typically within XXIV hours, and we’re proactively communicating with our client and offer apologies when we know we’ve had a service failure.

We’ve also initiated auditing programme that measuring how well we’re doing at consistently delivering on our customers’ prospect for a convenient drome experience and a clean and jerk airplane with all amenities operation properly.

There are numerous other instance of policy changes, inter-team coordination and new client and employee technology as well But at the end of the day the key to our operational and client service turnaround has been our employees’ focusing on getting every one of our rider to their goal? on-time, with their bags, without any bother – and when things do go wrong, workings quickly to make things right.

How rare is it? for a major carrier to pull off a trifecta?

It is an accomplishment that other large web carrier have only accomplished a 12 times over the past decade While this is the first US Airways three-base hit Play since our 2005 merger, US Airways pulled off a trifecta? in August 2002. But as rare as this accomplishment is, we don’t intend to postponement another 8 years for our next three-base hit Play.

Does this mean your client are getting better service? Or are there other Book of Numbers that are a better index number of the client service experience?

We believe the three point mensuration are collectively a very good index number of our customers’ experience. While there are many client service awards and survey out there which measure varying facet of the air traveling experience our client tell us that getting to their goal on-time, with their bags, and without hassle, is what substance most to them.

We posted strong year-over-year improvement in all three categories. so I would say, yes, our client are getting better service. It’s also worthy to billet that we are the only major web carrier that improved in all three class during May, and we posted bigger improvements than our challenger in all categories. For complaint specifically, our client service complaints dropped 34 percent year-over-year in May with the overall volume of complaint down XI per centum improvement of this magnitude are certainly being noticed by our customers, and we are continuing to strive to do even better.

I don’t hear anyone calling US Airways an ugly girl anymore, as one chief operating officer for a rival air hose did just after announcing a planned merger What’s morale like at the company?

That’s funny remark The past couple years have not been easy for most industry and the air hose sector has been hit harder than many. Yet despite the backdrop of the worst recession in more than half a century, our 31,000 employee delivered one of the most impressive operational turnaround in Holocene memory After ranking at the underside of the industry in all metrics in 2007, we finished first among the Big Five web carrier in on-time public presentation in 2008 and ranked second in 2009.

The start of 2010 was challenging due to extreme weather status on the east seashore which drove a significant number of flight delays and cancellations, but we’ve rebounded well in the second fourth part Those sort of consequence speak volume about our employees. And the word that all of our employee earned a $150 bonus for the May public presentation also brought a smiling to many faces. In total, we’ve paid out $6.8 million in 2010 alone; and since the three-base hit Play program started after the 2005 merger, we’ve paid out more than $40 million.

Now that you’ve done this, what’s your next goal?

Well, before we move on to what’s next — and there’s plentifulness of work ahead of us — we’re going to take some time to celebrate. At the end of this calendar month on the same day that most employee will receive their three-base hit Play bonus, employee across our system will celebrate with cake and water ice cream parties.

Of course, we have no purpose of standing still and we’ll continue to introduce new technologies and self-service tool for our client and employee – all with the intent of continuing to improve our customers’ experience.

How about a little preview?

We recently launched BeNotified, a customizable way to get information from US Airways, added functionality to our web site to allow some client to complete their own ticket reissues, and expanded our choice Seats program to allow client to purchase select window and aisle seating room located towards the front of the coach cabin at any point during or after booking a reservation.

In the not too distant future, client will be able to bank check in for flight on their Mobile River devices and will no longer need a paper embarkation pass They’ll also have accession to a new interactive voice response telephone set system to get what they need from US Airways more quickly and effectively, and they’ll continue to see new convenient feature added to our web site and drome kiosks. While we’re making all of these improvements, we’ll continue to deliver the excellent public presentation in core reliability mensuration that client have come to expect from US Airways.