United Is Winning the Widebody Efficiency Race

Mining the US DOT has been something we’ve been doing for years. Despite its many errors, it provides granular-level data that allows for analysis. Today, we have another of our new KPIs to introduce.  Say hello to the ‘Fleet Operational Efficiency Index (FOEI)’. It normalizes and blends three core operational pillars:

• Volume & Yield Efficiency: Passenger Load Factor adjusted by Unsold Seats per Flight.
• Weight & Belly Asset Efficiency: Payload Utilization (Freight + Passenger Mass vs. Structural Capacity).
• Operational Fluidity: Air Time Ratio (Air Time vs. Ramp-to-Ramp Block Time) to penalize taxi delay/congestion friction.

We then applied this to the T-100 Segment, focusing on twin aisles, where operational complexity and asset utilization decisions have the greatest cost impact. We found that United Airlines is the industry leader and has been so ever since the pandemic.  Delta and American are off their game, and new member of the pack, Alaska, is out of its depth.