Airline performance in 2012 was the
second highest in 23 years, according to an airline performance rating.
The researchers said that passengers
are experiencing better performance by the airlines, although it might cost
more to fly.
The performance of the nation's leading
carriers in 2012 was nearly identical to the best year in 2011, according to
the 23rd annual national Airline Quality Rating prepared by Wichita State
University and Purdue University.
Of the 14 carriers rated for
performance in 2011 and 2012, seven airlines improved, five airlines declined,
and two are new to the rankings, including the overall No. 1 performing
airline, Virgin America.
Improvement
in two of four areas
Airlines improved in two of the four items
in the rating: on-time performance and baggage handling. Involuntary denied
boardings and the customer complaint rate were higher in 2012.
The challenge airlines have is whether
airline performance quality improvements can be maintained as more people fly, said
Dean Headley, associate professor of marketing at Wichita State University.
The airline industry performs most
efficiently when the system isn't stressed by high passenger volume and high
number of airplanes in the air, Headley said. When there are more planes in the
sky and more people flying, airline performance suffers.
The researchers said when two airlines
consolidate, it usually the airline quality ratings of the new company usually
declines.
Brent Bowen, head of the Department of
Aviation Technology at Purdue University, said the researchers will be watching
to see if the consolidation of two highly rated carriers, former No. 1 AirTran
and Southwest, will reverse the trend.
This
year's ratings
Below is the 2013 ranking of the
nation's leading 14 airlines, according to the Airline Quality Rating, with the
2012 ranking following the Airline name:
- Virgin America – new to the ranking
this year
- JetBlue, 3
- AirTran, 1
- Delta, 6
- Hawaiian, 2
- Alaska, 5
- Frontier, 4
- Southwest, 7
- US Airways, 8
- American, 10
- American Eagle, 15
- SkyWest, 9
- ExpressJet, not rated in 2011
- United, 12
The rankings changed most for American
Eagle Airlines, from 15 up to 11, for 2012. Virgin America came into the
rankings as the top rated airline. JetBlue, 2, and AirTran, 3, both maintained
their top positions for 2012.
On-time
performance
Hawaiian Airlines had the best on-time
performance, with 93.4 percent for 2012, and ExpressJet and American had the
worst, with 76.9 percent.
Eight airlines improved their on-time
arrival performance in 2012. Nine of the 14 airlines rated had an on-time
arrival percentage of more than 80 percent. On-time for the industry in 2012
was 81.8 percent compared to 80 percent in 2011.
Denied
boardings
JetBlue had the lowest involuntary denied boardings at .01 per 10,000 passengers.
SkyWest had the highest involuntary denied boarding rate at 2.32 per 10,000
passengers.
Overall, five airlines improved their
denied boardings rate in 2012. American Eagle recorded the greatest
improvement, and SkyWest had the largest decline. JetBlue and Virgin American
are the industry leaders in avoiding denied boarding incidents.
Industry performance was worse in 2012, with .97 per 10,000 passengers, than it
was in 2011 with .78 per 10,000 passengers.
Baggage
handling
Virgin America had the best baggage
handling rate, with .87 mishandled bags per 1,000 passengers, of all airlines,
and American Eagle had the worst baggage handling rate, with 5.80 mishandled
bags per 1,000 passengers, of all the airlines.
Seven of 14 airlines improved their mishandled
baggage performance for the year. The rate for the industry decreased from 3.35
per 1,000 passengers in 2011 to 3.07 in 2012.
Consumer
complaints
Southwest again had the lowest consumer
complaint rate, with .25 per 100,000 passengers, of all airlines. United had
the highest consumer complaint rate, with 4.24 per 100,000 passengers, of all
airlines rated.
Customer complaints per 100,000
passengers increased from 1.19 in 2011 to 1.43 in 2012. The majority of complaints
were for flight problems, 32.7 percent; reservations, ticketing, and boarding,
14.6 percent; customer service, 14.3 percent; and baggage, 12.4 percent.
The researchers invite the flying
public to participate in the Annual Passenger Survey at http://www.wichita.edu/aqrconsumersurvey.
Copyright 2013, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist
