US Airways workers get $50 bonus for on-time rating

— -- US Airways employees will get their ninth $50 bonus this year as the airline continued its strong performance in on-time arrivals.

The Tempe airline posted an on-time percentage of 87.5 in October, its best since the 2005 America West/US Airways merger. That put it third among the nation's 10 major airlines, behind Northwest at 90% and Southwest at 89.6%, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation's monthly "Air Travel Consumer Report." A flight is considered on time if it arrives within 14 minutes of schedule.

US Airways' 34,000 employees are paid $50 each month the airline ranks in the top three among its peers in on-time arrivals, baggage handling or fewest customer complaints.

They can win in multiple categories in a month, but all but one of this year's bonuses have been for on-time performance. The airline still lags its peers in baggage handling and customer complaints.

In October, the airline ranked sixth of 10 in baggage handling and had the most customer complaints of all carriers in the report. The latter position is one the airline has occupied the past couple of years.

Company executives have blamed the airline's poor recovery on bad weather and other factors that force flight cancellations and long delays and frustrate customers.

More recently, they said they saw a spike in complaints from the new fees for checked baggage and other items, including sodas.

On Wednesday, Chief Operating Officer Robert Isom put a positive spin on the complaint numbers. In his monthly newsletter to employees, Isom said the airline saw "remarkable improvement" in the rate of complaints in October, which pushed the figure to its lowest level since January 2007.

It was down sharply from a year earlier but about even with September.

"Our continued focus on improving the reliability of our on-time performance and baggage handling, and on providing excellent service to our customers, has resulted in three straight months of decreases in negative feedback," he said.