There were a slew of headlines last year about U.S. airline customers having miserable, sometimes horrific experiences, a new report says the quality of airline service hit a record high in 2017.
Experts, one from Wichita State University, and another from from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University are the authors of the Airline Quality Rating. For the last 26 years they have calculated the performance of carriers based on four factors measured by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DoT): Percentage of bags mishandled, on-time arrivals, denied boardings and complaints to the DoT.
While the percentage of flights on time last year, 80.2%, was slightly lower than in 2016, there were also fewer complaints from passengers. In addition, carriers posted record low numbers for mishandled bags and for passengers being involuntarily bumped from flights.
In fact, denied boardings were down last year compared to 2016, as airlines changed their policies after a passenger was dragged off of a United Airlines plane. Video of the incident was so bad, it prompted a public outcry for airlines to drop, or dramatically reduce, the practice of overselling flights.
The other area where airlines are improving is with luggage. On average, carriers mishandle 2.46 bags per 1,000 passengers, according to DoT data. The improvement is due to a number of factors, including passengers checking fewer bags to avoid fees.
Meanwhile, airlines like Delta now route and track bags using RFID tags, which have tiny chips that communicate their location to scanners at airports.
Among the four categories that make up the Airline Quality Rating, the top performances include Hawaiian Airlines having the best on-time arrival rate, and Delta bumping the lowest percentage of passengers. Spirit Airlines did the best job handling bags and Southwest had the lowest customer complaint rate with the Department of Transportation.
By comparison, Virgin America had the worst on-time arrival rate last year, and Express Jet mishandled the highest percentage of bags. Spirit's record with denied boardings and customer complaints was the worst, according to the DoT.
