My wife and I had to laugh this morning as we read an AP story on the 2013 Airline Quality Ratings report. This report, which is used as a report card for the U.S. airline industry, has been calculated since 1991 by researchers at Wichita State University and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. The researchers grade the the airlines on government figures for on-time performance, mishandled bags, bumped passengers, and complaints filed with the U.S. Department of Transportation.
The top rated airline in 2013, for the second year in a row, was Virgin America. Here is a look at the top 15 airlines.
2013 Airline Quality Ratings
1. Virgin America
2. JetBlue
3. Hawaiian
4. Delta
5. Alaska Airlines
6. Endeavor (formerly called Pinnacle Airlines)
7. USAir
8. Southwest
9. American
10. Airtran
11. Frontier
12. United
13. ExpressJet
14. SkyWest
15. American Eagle
What had my wife and I snickering as we read the story, was the airline industries response to the overall industry performance in each of the individual categories. After reading that the rate of lost, stolen or delayed bags rose 5% last year and the the on-time performance for the airline industry was down nearly 5% to 78.4 percent; an industry spokesperson commented that the airlines were taking steps to dramatically improve performance in 2014 . As we reflected on our own recent experience with the airlines; waiting nearly 2 hours for the airline to find our luggage after our family cruise with Disney in January, then having a 4 hour delay for our spring break flight to Florida last week with another airline, we can only wish them well, LOL!!
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