US airline service: worse than ever
For US airlines, it just keeps getting worse. Their overall performance worsened in 2006 for the third consecutive year of decline, according to the 17th annual Airline Quality Ratings.
Airline hassles are also on the rise: More passengers found themselves bumped, their flights delayed or their bags lost last year than in 2005, the study found.
“They just don’t get it yet,” said Dean Headley, an associate professor at Wichita State University and co-author of the study.
Performance fell in three of the four categories measured by the study: on-time arrival, involuntary bumping and mishandled luggage.
The study rated Hawaiian Airlines the best performer last year among individual airlines. The study rated 18 airlines for 2006, the first year that Hawaiian was large enough to be included.
JetBlue, which has experienced severe operational problems for a week in February, was the second best performer, missing out on the top spot for the first time in four years.
The industry rating for 2006 is the lowest since 2000, which was one of the worst years ever for airline service.
Customer service was so bad that year that Congress considered adopting a passengers’ bill of rights to force change, reported the AP.
After 9-11, a drop in flights and passengers alleviated delays and other performance problems. But the industry is seeing them again as the passenger volume continues to rebound and airlines reduce capacity to generate higher fares.
Of the 18 rated airlines, only Northwest and US Airways improved from 2005.
Among other findings:
• The industry had about 75% of their flights arriving on time, compared to 77.3% in 2005. Ten out of the 18 airlines had worse on-time arrival performance in 2006 than in 2005. Only three airlines had 80% or greater on-time arrival.
•The industry’s rate of involuntary denied boarding worsened in 2006 — to 1.01 per 10,000 passengers from 0.89 a year earlier. Atlantic Southeast was the worst, with 4.47. Jet Blue was the best, with 0.07.
• The industry mishandled 6.5 bags per 1,000, up from 6 in 2005. “It’s a sizeable jump,” Mr Headley said. Atlantic Southeast was the worst also in the rate of mishandled baggage — with 17.37 mishandled bags per 1,000 passengers.
•Southwest Airlines had the lowest consumer complaint rate, with 0.18 per 100,000 passengers.
If there’s an upside, researchers said, the overall number of airline complaints has stabilized since hitting a five-year low in 2005.
Report by David Wilkening
David
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