Every year, Wichita State University in Kansas, in cooperation with Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona, publishes a report on the quality of American airlines on domestic routes. The report is based on four criteria emanating from the US Department of Transportation (DOT): flight punctuality, passengers disembarked by the airline, lost or damaged baggage and the number of passenger complaints.
The top two companies in these four categories in 2017 were Alaska Airlinesfollowed closely by Delta AirlinesThe difference was insignificant at 0.005 points. The two universities found an overall improvement in service quality for all 12 US airlines, with the difference fading between the leaders and their competitors.
According to the study punctuality The overall performance of the airlines was down last year, due in particular to the hurricanes, which severely affected the performance of US carriers. On-time flights - in other words, flights that landed within 15 minutes of their original schedule - accounted for 80.2% of all journeys. However, this represents a deterioration in performance by 1.2 points on the previous year.
Performance improved in the following three categories: the number of lost or damaged luggage fell from 2.7 in 2016 to 2.4 in 2017 per 1,000 passengers; the ratio of passengers who were denied boarding reached 0.34 per 10,000 travellers compared with 0.62 in 2016, an improvement that has a lot to do with the spectacular expulsion of a passenger on a United Airlines flight last year, an expulsion that unleashed a torrent of reproaches on social networks; the number of complaints per 100,000 passengers fell from 1.52 to 1.35 between 2016 and 2017. Out of a total of 11,570 complaints, almost three out of four were due to in-flight problems, problems with baggage, reservations or tickets, or a lack of responsiveness from passenger services.
In fact, the results of the US air transport industry as a whole are considered to be the best for several decades, due to the sharp reduction in the number of passengers disembarking from flights and the reduction in the number of lost or damaged baggage items.
Only three airlines (American Airlines, Frontier and United Airlines) out of the twelve in the report performed better in all categories. Nine out of 12 airlines scored better than in 2016 - including Express Jet, Hawaiian, JetBlue, SkyWest, Southwest and Spirit in addition to the three above. Finally, three carriers - Alaska, Delta and Virgin America - achieved lower scores.
In fact, social networks have generally played a positive role in the responsiveness of airlines and the consequent improvement in quality levels. The American consumer is more alert than ever, and any deviation in service can have devastating consequences for an airline's image.
US airline rankings in 2017 (2016 rankings in brackets)
- Alaska (1)
- Delta (2)
- JetBlue (4)
- Hawaiian (5)
- Southwest (6)
- SkyWest (7)
- Virgin America (3)
- United (8)
- American (9)
- ExpressJet (10)
- Frontier (12)
- Spirit (11)
