WASHINGTON - As Virgin America claimed the top spot for the fourth consecutive year, overall U.S. airline performance improved slightly in 2015, according to the 26th annual Airline Quality Rating (AQR), released today (Monday, April 4) at the National Press Club in Washington.
The AQR is a joint research project funded as part of faculty research activities at Wichita State University (Wichita, Kan.) and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Prescott, Ariz., campus.
Industry performance improved slightly after a down year in 2014. Six of 13 U.S. airlines evaluated improved this past year, six declined, and one airline (Spirit) was new to the ratings.
Overall, the airline industry collectively improved in three of the four core elements traced by the AQR study: on-time performance, rate of involuntary denied boardings, and the rate of mishandled baggage.
However, the rate of customer complaints increased to its highest level in 15 years, per passenger served.
Airlines that performed better in 2015 were JetBlue, Delta, ExpressJet, SkyWest, Southwest and United. Those whose scores declined from 2014 were Alaska, American, Envoy, Frontier, Hawaiian and Virgin America.
Although Virgin America’s score declined slightly, it still retained the overall No. 1 ranking. JetBlue climbed two spots to finish a close second, followed by Delta, which maintained third place.
Unhappy air traveling public
Dean Headley, associate professor of marketing at the W. Frank Barton School of Business at Wichita State University, says the better overall performance shows that the recent round of mergers is settling in and performance is reflecting this to customer benefit.
“Bigger has produced some operating gains for the airlines, but customer perceptions of poor outcomes are still reflected in a higher number of customer complaints for the year,” said Headley.
Study co-researcher Brent Bowen, dean of the College of Aviation at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Prescott, Ariz., campus, agreed.
“These results clearly show that the air traveling public is not happy,” Bowen said. “Passengers are reaching out and letting us know exactly that, based on the number of complaints filed with the Department of Transportation. The human element of air travel is obviously deteriorating, and passengers are fed up.”
An electronic version of the full report is available at airlinequalityrating.com.
Inside this year’s rating
Below is the 2015 numerical ranking of the nation’s leading 13 airlines, according to the Airline Quality Rating, with the 2014 ranking in parentheses:
- Virgin America (1)
- JetBlue (4)
- Delta (3)
- Hawaiian (2)
- Alaska (5)
- Southwest (6)
- SkyWest (10)
- United (9)
- ExpressJet (11)
- American (7)
- Frontier (8)
- Envoy Air (12)
- Spirit (new to rating in 2015)