Airlines could spend fortunes to cover up for internal errors and external destructions by hiring replacement aircraft in order to keep their schedules on time, add more crew, spare parts, equipment, invest in information systems and so on.
These ‘punctuality costs' are not associated with flight delays or, more generally, disruptions. So, how much does good punctuality really cost airlines? Is it worth investing too much in improvements of on-time performance, when a relatively high percentage of faulty services has already been accepted as an industry norm?
Airlines obviously need to find the optimum balance between punctuality and investment in its improvement.
