Airlines Are Improving Service, Research Shows

The nation’s 17 leading airlines showed improvement in satisfaction among customers, according to the 19th annual Airline Quality Rating survey. The industry improved in all four major elements of the survey: on-time performance, baggage handling, denied boardings and customer complaints.

The Airline Quality Rating is a joint research project funded as part of faculty research work at Saint Louis University and Wichita State University.
The five top-rated airlines overall were Hawaiian, AirTran, Jet Blue, Northwest and Alaska.

The improved ratings for 2008 follow an overall worst-ever industry score in 2007. Although the airlines made a concerted effort to improve last year, external factors also played a large role.

“We know the system performs better when it’s less stressed by high passenger volume,” said Dean Headley, associate professor of marketing at the W. Frank Barton School of Business at Wichita State University. “The economy scared away both business and leisure travelers in 2008.”

Of the 15 elements researchers use to judge service quality, the area that improved the most was baggage handling, which went up by 25 percent.

“Baggage handling probably needed to improve given the fact that people are now paying for it,” Headley said. “The airlines would have had a real problem had they lost the same number of bags and charged people for the privilege. It would have been a disaster.”

Airlines made a concerted effort as all 17 improved in this category. AirTran had the best baggage-handling rate, with only 2.87 mishandled bags per 1,000 travelers. American Eagle had the worst rate – 9.89 per 1,000 travelers. The average was 5.19

The challenge is whether the airlines will continue to improve performance as the economy gets back on its feet and more people start flying.

“We saw this happen after 9/11, so the ratings didn’t come as a real surprise,” said Brent Bowen, chairman of the aviation science department at the Parks College of Engineering, Aviation and Technology at Saint Louis University.

Other results:
• Hawaiian had the best on-time performance in 2008 at 90 percent. American Airlines had the worst, with 69.8 percent. The industry average was 78 percent.
• Jet Blue had the lowest involuntary denied boarding rate at 0.01 per 10,000 passengers. Atlantic Southeast had the highest rate at 3.89. The average was 1.10.
• Southwest Airlines continued to have the lowest consumer complaint rate at 0.25 per 100,000 passengers. US Airways had the highest complain rate of 2.01. The average was 1.15.
• Fifty-eight percent of all complaints made to the Department of Transportation were for flight problems or baggage issues.
• US Airways was the most improved airline over the previous year; United made the least gains.

For more information about the Airline Quality Rating, go to http://www.aqr.aero.