JetBlue Leads In On-Time Performance

In a head-to-head competition between so-called legacy carriers -- the old guard, like American, United and Delta -- and low-cost carriers such as JetBlue and Southwest, you'll never guess who won the most recent battle.

Yup, the new kids on the block.

"The low-fare carriers are definitely solid in their ability to attract passengers, and it shows in the market share gains that they're making," said Dean Headley, a marketing professor at Wichita State University (KS) and co-author of the new study.

It shows upstart JetBlue, ranked for the first time since starting  with the best on-time performance and fewer customer complaints than any other airline save Southwest.

It was an amazing turnaround for the low-cost carriers (LCCs). When Headley and his co-author, Brent Bowen, director of the University of Nebraska's Aviation Institute, started the study in 1991, LCCs had just four percent of the market. Now, Headley and Bowen estimate LCCs will carry 25-percent of all domestic passengers by 2006.

The latest annual study "adds further evidence to the emerging performance gap between the legacy carriers and the no-frills network carriers," said Bowen.

So are the big boys down and out? Not necessarily, said Bowen. "The survey seems to count out the fact that a large percentage of business people need ubiquitous service at any time of day." Add to that Americans' strong affinity for frequent flyer miles. That, said the authors, has a lot of people very loyal to a particular airline -- one that will get them to Hawaii or the Bahamas or wherever they want to go when it's time to put down the spreadsheet and pick up the suntan oil.

Rankings

1. JetBlue Airways
2. Alaska Airlines
3. Southwest Airlines
4. America West
5. US Airways
6. Northwest Airlines
7. Continental Airlines
8. AirTran
9. United Airlines
10. ATA
11. American Airlines
12. Delta Air Lines
13. American Eagle
14.  Atlantic Southeast

FMI: http://www.unomaha.edu/~unoai/aqr/2004aqr.pdf