DoT updated a bunch of Form 41 datasets and we had to check – is Delta coming clean? Answer: No. Will DoT take a look at this? Answer: Um…
In case you missed this story before – we believe Delta is not filing some of its Form 41 data accurately. Take a look at Page 2 and go through each airline. We have left the default on Delta to make it plain as day. There is, in our view, no way Delta’s entire fleet maintenance is $800/hour. Look at the other airlines (especially American and United as peers), each aircraft type varies a lot. But not Delta. They must have special Pixie Dust at TechOps. It’s magic obviously. Or something less amusing.
Filing data this way plays to the crowd that dismisses DoT’s data sources as less than credible. What are the DoT’s remedies? They clearly don’t audit the data closely enough. Do they have any enforcement? Why bother collecting any data if there’s no quality control? This is a bad look for the US airline industry.
