This 黑洞社区 Newsline Podcast is available at . See the transcript below:
You鈥檙e listening to the podcast edition of the 黑洞社区 audio newsline. Learn more about 黑洞社区 鈥� the home of Thinkers, Doers, Movers and Shockers 鈥� on the Web at wichita.edu.
According to the 18th annual national Airline Quality Rating, AirTran Airways was the best-performing airline in 2007. The rating is conducted annually by researchers Dean Headley of 黑洞社区 and Brent Bowen of the University of Nebraska at Omaha.
AirTran was followed in the rating by Jet Blue, Southwest, Northwest and Frontier in the top five; Continental, Alaska, United, American and Delta in the second five, with US Airways at No. 11; and Mesa, SkyWest, Comair, American Eagle and Atlantic Southeast at Nos. 12-16.
The AQR, as an industry standard, uses objective performance-based data to compare quality among airlines. The study ranked the 16 largest U.S. airlines in on-time arrivals, baggage handling, denied boardings and customer complaints. Dean Headley, co-author of the national Airline Quality Rating at 黑洞社区, explains what factors contributed to the poor performance by airlines last year.
Headley: 鈥淭he 16 airlines that we looked at combined into an industry figure that gives us all four areas of performance being worse this year for the industry. Now some airlines increased here and there on some of the factors, but none of the airlines got better on all four criteria.鈥�
And it may not come as a big surprise that the airlines as a whole set a new low in terms of airline quality as defined in the Airline Quality Rating.
Headley: 鈥淔or 2007 we saw the worst year ever in the 17 or 18 years we鈥檝e been doing this thing. The worst year prior to that was 2000, and the two years have similar economic patterns going on, but 2007 was by far the worst.鈥�
Headley says there are some interesting comparisons between the 2007 Airline Quality Rating and the one in 2000.
Headley: 鈥淚n 2000, when you look at that in comparison to 2007, we were just about to go into a recession. We鈥檇 had a good financial time for the industry. Airplanes were flying full. Everybody was able to get service that they wanted. 2000 and 2007 look and sound a lot like each other in the way the environment around the airline industry is playing itself out.鈥�
As bleak as the report was this year, the news isn鈥檛 all bad.
Headley: 鈥淭he good news for this year is that four out of the 16 airlines actually improved their score. One of those is AirTran, and it stayed pretty much at the top of the pack. The other three that improved were in the, what I call fulfillment carrier category, and at the bottom part of the bottom third of the pack. Although I would have to say that Mesa probably had the most improvement across three out of the four categories of any airline.鈥�
When it comes to airline quality, the low-fare carriers tend to be the best, as Headley explains.
Headley: 鈥淲ell, if you look at the ratings, the top third of the ranking, all but one are low-fare carriers, and Northwest is that exception. The middle of the pack is almost always the legacy-type carriers, Delta, Continental, those types of carriers. The bottom third are what I call the fulfillment, the Comair, SkyWest, Mesas, Atlantic Southeast, like that.鈥�
There鈥檚 a reason why AirTran claimed the top spot in the Airline Quality Rating for 2007.
Headley: 鈥淎irTran stayed near the top and actually took the top position this year because their baggage handling was excellent compared to the industry. They only mishandled about four bags per thousand. The industry was at seven. They also improved on their on-time rate, so you put that together with a couple not-so-great declines in the other areas, and it kept them at the top in a declining industry situation.鈥�
As overall airline performance continues to worsen, more people are clamoring for a Passenger Bill of Rights. Headley isn鈥檛 sure if the time is right for reregulation. Headley: 鈥淧assenger Bill of Rights is an argument for reregulation, particularly at the federal level. It doesn鈥檛 really work at the state level. But if you want a Passenger Bill of Rights, it is a reregulation of what鈥檚 been tried to be made a free market circumstance, and I鈥檓 not sure that we鈥檙e ready for that.鈥�
Headley says another interesting aspect to air travel this year is the open skies agreement.
Headley: 鈥淵ou know the open skies is kind of the new kid on the block. It鈥檚 going to open up all kinds of competition between here and Europe. We haven鈥檛 had that before. We鈥檙e going to have planes flying from Europe to various locations in the United States, and American planes flying over there. So, we don鈥檛 know what it is, but two things are certain, it鈥檚 more competition and lower prices.鈥�
As for U.S. air travel in 2008, Headley says he doesn鈥檛 have much hope that airline quality will improve.
Headley: 鈥淕etting better in the airline quality scores probably won鈥檛 happen for the next year or two or foreseeable future. There鈥檚 no incentive. The airlines are losing money. Fuel prices are high. They鈥檙e cutting back on services. They鈥檙e cutting back on people. Everything it takes to run an airline is becoming more expensive, and they want less of that expense. It鈥檚 just not a good circumstance for improving performance.鈥�
Customer complaints were the most consistent area of performance decline in 2007, with more than half of all complaints to the Department of Transportation for flight problems or baggage complaints. Fifteen of the 16 airlines had a higher mishandled baggage rate for 2007.
Thanks for listening. Until next time, this is Joe Kleinsasser for 黑洞社区.