Travel Tips

Despite Media Image, Air Travel Quality Rises as Passenger Numbers Drop

Locations in this article:  St. Louis, MO

Female traveler and pilotThough the media (including us) paints a picture of air travel as a nightmarish ordeal characterized by late planes, lost bags and bumped passengers, a new report shows that the industry has actually improved its performance in four major categories of service.

Many analysts attribute the improvement to one primary factor: lower passenger volume.

Last year the poor economy prompted airlines cut 11 percent of their capacity and streamline their operations amid wavering demand and high costs.

A similar trend occurred after September 11, 2001, when passenger demand declined and many planes flew half-empty.

The Airline Quality Rating (AQR) report, which was sponsored by St. Louis University and Wichita State University and compiled from data obtained from the Department of Transportation, looked at 17 major U.S. airlines and rated them on baggage handling, on-time performance, denied boarding, and customer complaints.

Plane Tails at GateThough some airlines fared worse than others, overall the industry improved in all four areas. Hawaiian Airlines topped the list of best overall performers for the second time in three years, with AirTran, JetBlue, and Northwest ranking second, third and fourth, respectively.

In the consumer complaints category Southwest came in first with only 0.25 complaints per 100,000 passengers, while US Airways came in last with 2.25 per 100,000. The industry average was 1.15 per 100,000, compared to 1.42 in 2007. Jet Blue had the lowest rate of involuntary bumping, while Atlantic Southeast had the highest.

And when it comes to baggage handling, AirTran was least likely to lose or delay your luggage, while American Eagle was most likely. American Airlines was one of the most-improved airlines, moving from 7.25 lost bags per 1,000 passengers in 2007 to 5.71 per 1,000 in 2008. Overall the number of mishandled bags fell from 7.01 bags per 1,000 passengers to 5.19.

Plane in skyHowever, don’t break out the streamers and party hats yet—it seems there was nowhere for the airlines to go but up, considering that last year the industry got its worst score in more than a decade. The bottom line is that you’re still going to face hassles and obstacles when you fly, even if they are somewhat fewer and farther between.

For example, in the on-time performance category, the industry showed a 3 percent improvement over last year. However, all but three of the airlines in the study were still late at least 20 percent of the time. American Airlines was the worst performer, with only 69.8 percent of its flights leaving on time.

The report’s authors hope that the industry will take advantage of this relatively smooth period to make needed upgrades to planes and air traffic control systems. Some analysts fear that when the economy recovers and airlines ramp up operations to previous levels, performance will decline again.

By Karen Elowitt for PeterGreenberg.com.

Related links: USA Today, AirConsumer.gov, Boston Globe, United Press Int’l, Associated Press

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