With fewer flights and fewer passengers, airlines are performing better.
For the second year, the performance of the nation’s leading carriers improved, according to the 20th annual national Airline Quality Rating report. It was the third best overall score in the years researchers at Purdue University and Wichita State University have tracked the performance of airlines.
Below is numerical ranking of the nation’s leading 18 airlines for 2009, according to the Airline Quality Rating, with the 2008 ranking in parentheses:
1. Hawaiian (1)
2. AirTran (2)
3. JetBlue (3)
4. Northwest (4)
5. Southwest (6)
6. Continental (8)
7. Frontier (7)
8. US Airways (10)
9. American (9)
10. ExpressJet (not ranked for 2008)
11. Alaska (5)
12. Mesa (14)
13. United (11)
14. SkyWest (13)
15. Delta (12)
16. Comair (15)
17. Atlantic Southeast (17)
18. American Eagle (16)
The industry improved in on-time performance, baggage handling, and customer complaints, but declined in denied boardings or bumpings.
More bumpings occurred because airline companies tightened up on the number of seats that are available, researchers said. Airlines are focused on generating revenues, not necessarily on customer service.
The overall rankings changed very little from 2008 to 2009, as the top four airlines remained the same, the researchers said.
Hawaiian repeated as the overall No. 1 ranked airline by a narrow margin over AirTran. The biggest change was Alaska, falling from a No. 5 ranking to No. 11.
Hawaiian Airlines had the best on-time performance – 92.1 percent – for 2009, and Atlantic Southeast had the worst –71.2 percent.
JetBlue had the lowest bumpings rate at 0.00 per 10,000 passengers. American Eagle had the highest rate at 3.76 per 10,000 passengers.
AirTran had the best baggage handling rate – 1.67 mishandled bags per 1,000 passengers – of all airlines, and Atlantic Southeast had the worst baggage handling rate – 7.87 mishandled bags per 1,000 passengers.
Southwest again had the lowest consumer complaint rate – 0.21 per 100,000 passengers – of all airlines. Delta had the highest consumer complaint rate – 1.96 per 100,000 passengers.
Customer complaints per 100,000 passengers decreased from 1.15 in 2008 to 0.97 in 2009. The majority of complaints were for flight problems – 23.8 percent; baggage – 18.7 percent; reservations, ticketing, and boarding – 15.1 percent; and customer service – 13.9 percent.
