Improvements In On-Time Performance, Baggage Handling, Denied Boardings

Airline passengers are experiencing better performance by the airlines, even though it may cost more to fly. For the third consecutive year, the performance of the nation's leading carriers improved, according to the 21st annual national Airline Quality Rating. It was the third best overall score in the 20 years researchers have tracked the performance of airlines.

Released during a news conference at the National Press Club Monday, the rankings show that of the 16 carriers rated for performance in both 2009 and 2010, nine airlines had improved Airline Quality Rating scores, and seven airlines had worse AQR scores for 2010.

In the executive summary posted on the AQR website, the group says that, as an industry, its AQR criteria shows that on-time arrival percentage was better (80.0% in 2010 compared to 79.4% in 2009), mishandled baggage rates improved to 3.49 per 1,000 passengers in 2010 from 3.88 per 1,000 passengers in 2009, and involuntary denied boardings per passenger served decreased to 1.08 per 10,000 passengers in 2010 from 1.19 per 10,000 passengers in 2009. Consumer complaint rates increased to 1.22 per 100,000 passengers in 2010 from 0.97 per 100,000 passengers in 2009. Of the 9,119 complaints registered with DOT regarding U.S. domestic carriers, 48.8% were for either flight problems or baggage handling problems. Taking all 16 rated airlines together, the AQR score for the industry improved from a level of -1.27 in 2009 to -1.20 in 2010. With a mixed bag of gains and losses across the 16 carriers rated, the slight gain in AQR score for the industry is a positive sign. The improvement trend in AQR scores since 2007 speaks well of the industry efforts in difficult times.

The Airline Quality Rating is a joint research project funded as part of faculty research activities at Wichita State University and Purdue University. The industry improved in three of the four major elements of the AQR: on-time performance, baggage handling and denied boardings. Customer complaints is the only element where performance declined.

Below is the 2011 numerical ranking of the nation's leading 16 airlines, according to the Airline Quality Rating, with the 2010 ranking in parentheses:

1. AirTran (2)
2. Hawaiian (1)
3. JetBlue (3)
4. Alaska (11)
5. Southwest (5)
6. US Airways (8)
7. Delta (15)
8. Continental (6)
9. Frontier (7)
10. SkyWest (14)
11. American (9)
12. United (13)
13. Mesa (12)
14. Comair (16)
15. Atlantic Southeast (17)
16. American Eagle (18)

FMI: http://aqr.aero