For the fourth consecutive year, the performance of the nation's leading carriers improved, according to the 22nd annual national Airline Quality Rating, a joint research project funded as part of faculty research activities at Wichita State and Purdue University.
In fact, it was the best overall score in the 22 years researchers have tracked the performance of airlines, say AQR founding researchers, Dean Headley '82, associate professor of marketing at the WSU Barton School of Business and Brent Bowen of Purdue.
For the second consecutive year, AirTran, Hawaiian and JetBlue were the three best performing airlines.
Released during a news conference at the National Press Club on April 2, the rankings show that of the 15 carriers rated in both 2010 and 2011, 10 airlines improved, four airlines declined and one remained the same for 2011.
The industry improved in all four major elements of the AQR: on-time performance, baggage handling, involuntary denied boardings and customer complaints.
"When you look at the past 12 years," Headley says, "you find that the airline industry performs most efficiently when the system isn't stressed by high passenger volume and high numbers of airplanes in the air. Every time there are more planes in the sky and more people flying, airline performance suffers."
An electronic version of the full report, with details on each airline, is available at airlinequalityrating.com.
