Mesa, SkyWest, Comair, American Eagle, and Atlantic Southeast ranked 12-16 in this year’s Wichita State University Airline Quality Ratings published with great hoopla – and coverage – last week. But American Eagle, ASA and Mesa were three of the four that improved their scores the most, according to the survey’s report on denied boardings, mishandled bags and customer complaints. Air Tran, who took the top spot in the survey, was the fourth carrier.
The problem, however, is that such ratings do not take into account what regionals already know, that many of their problems are beyond their control and are really done at the behest of their major partners – especially late flights and lost baggage. The survey takes its data from the Department of Transportation statistics, which are already biased against regionals since it does not report out exactly which airline – the mainline or the regional – is to blame for consumer problems.
The Associated Press reported that Mesa’s consumer complaints dropped by one third at a time when the airline was also improving with its rate of bumped passengers and misconnected bags.
ASA took the brunt of late flights with more than one third giving it the worst on-time performance in 2007. It also had the worst record for bumped passengers at 4.5 per 10,000 passengers. It is blamed despite the fact Delta is the one that oversells its flights. Parent company SkyWest already has a SkyWest team in place to turn those numbers around. American Eagle had the worst mishandled bag rate at 13.55 per 1,000 passengers.
On-time arrivals dropped for the fifth straight year, with more than one-quarter of all flights late, AP reported of the survey. In addition bumping rates and lost, stolen and damaged bag rates also increased.
"The trend is bad and it doesn't look like it gets any better," said Dean Headley, an associate professor at Wichita State University and co-author of the study told AP.
The AQR is a summary of month-by-month quality ratings for the largest domestic U.S. airlines operating during 2007. Co-researchers Brent Bowen, professor at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) Aviation Institute/School of Public Administration, and Dean Headley, associate professor and chair of marketing at Wichita State University (WSU), used 15 elements important to consumers when judging the quality of airline service. Sixteen airlines were studied for the 2008 ratings report. The Airline Report Card is a unique figure that shows each airlines' individual rating since the AQR began 18 years ago. This visual aid offers invaluable historical reporting opportunities, Bowen said.
Air Tran took the top spot in the 18th annual national Airline Quality Ratings (AQR) study. Last year, Air Tran ranked third in the AQR. It was followed by Jet Blue, Southwest, Northwest and Frontier.
As far as an overall rating for the industry, this is the worst AQR score ever, according to the AQR researchers. The second worst was for calendar year 2000 when the environment mirrored that in 2007, including talk of recession, squeaking into the black after numerous years of losses and strong demand.