CourtesyAs 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 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 黑洞社区 (Wichita, Kansas) and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University鈥檚 Prescott, Arizona, 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鈥檚 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 黑洞社区, says the better overall performance shows that the recent round of mergers is settling in and performance is reflecting this to customer benefit.
鈥淏igger 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,鈥� said Headley.
Study co-researcher Brent Bowen, dean of the College of Aviation at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University鈥檚 Prescott, Arizona, campus, agreed.
鈥淭hese results clearly show that the air traveling public is not happy,鈥� Bowen said 鈥淧assengers 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.鈥�
The AQR score also reflects some of the complexities of an airline industry serving customers in a capacity-limited air travel system.
鈥淲hen you look at the past 14 years, you find that the airline industry performs most efficiently when the system isn鈥檛 stressed by high passenger volume and high number of airplanes in the air,鈥� said Headley. 鈥淲ith continued capacity limits and consolidation, one would hope that a less congested system would perform better. We began to see this again in 2015.
鈥淭he challenge is whether airline performance quality improvements at this level can be maintained as more people choose to fly. Does the infrastructure and air traffic control technology limit what the airlines can actually do?鈥�
Bowen says the answer to that question and others like it will be sought by researchers and the flying public in the years to come.
鈥淲hile these airlines are making record profits, the findings clearly indicate investments need to happen now to improve the customer experience in all of the complaint categories,鈥� Bowen added. 鈥淎dditionally, airports, communities and the government agencies must improve the capacity for air travel because there is no indication that air travel growth will slow down in the future.鈥�
Inside this year鈥檚 rating
Below is the 2015 numerical ranking of the nation鈥檚 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)
An electronic version of the full report, with details on each airline, is available at .