Airline Performance Improves for First Time in Five Years

The performance of the nation’s leading air carriers improved for the first time in five years, according to the 19th annual national Airline Quality Rating. The industry improved in all four major elements of the AQR: on-time performance, baggage handling, denied boarding and customer complaints.

The Airline Quality Rating is a joint research project funded as part of faculty research activities at Saint Louis University and Wichita State University. Although the airlines made a concerted effort to improve last year, there’s another factor behind the enhanced ratings that should cause passengers to take the good news with a grain of salt. The challenge, researchers add, is whether the airlines will continue to improve performance s the economy gets back on its feet and more people start flying again.

In related news, researchers found that the airline industry’s return profitability in 2006 and 2007 became short-lived when the price of oil skyrocketed to $147 a barrel last year. The top 10 airlines were: Hawaiian, AirTran, Jet Blue, Northwest, Alaska, Southwest, Frontier, Continental, American and US Airways. Baggage handling probably needed to improve given the fact that people are now paying for it.

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 and likely would have resulted in an increase in customer complaints. The airlines made a concerted effort to improve baggage handling as all 17 airlines improved in that category.

AirTran had the best baggage handling rate, with only 2.87 mishandled bags per 1,000 passengers. American Eagle had the worst baggage handling rate of 9.89 per 1,000 passengers. The industry average was 5.19 mishandled bags per 1,000 passengers.