Virgin, JetBlue rank high in Airline Quality Rating report

VIRGIN America Inc. and JetBlue Airways Corp. held the first and second spots, respectively, for airline performance last year, according to the annual Airline Quality Rating.
VIRGIN America Inc. and JetBlue Airways Corp. held the first and second spots, respectively, for airline performance last year, according to the annual Airline Quality Rating.

PROVIDENCE – For the fourth consecutive year in a row, Virgin America Inc. held the top spot for airline performance, according to the annual Airline Quality Rating.
The 26th annual study, from Wichita State University and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, on airline performance was released this week. It showed that U.S. airline performance improved slightly last year, after falling in 2014.
Six of 13 U.S. airlines evaluated improved this past year, six declined and one airline – Spirit – was new to the ratings.
The study said the airline industry collectively improved in three of four core elements traced by the AQR study: on-time performance, rate of involuntary denied boardings and rate of mishandled baggage.
The rate of customer complaints increased to its highest level in 15 years, per passenger served, however. 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.
Even though Virgin America’s score declined slightly, it still maintained the top spot. JetBlue climbed two spots to finish a “close second,” according to the study, followed by Delta, which maintained third place.
“When you look at the past 14 years, you find that the airline industry performs most efficiently when the system isn’t stressed by high passenger volume and high number of airplanes in the air,” Dean Headley, associate professor of marketing at the W. Frank Barton School of Business at Wichita State University, said in a statement. “With continued capacity limits and consolidation, one would hope that a less congested system would perform better. We began to see this again in 2015.”
JetBlue was the industry leader in avoiding involuntary denied boarding incidents with a rate of 0.02 per 10,000 passengers.
The rankings were as follows (last year’s rank is in parentheses):

  • 1.Virgin America (1)
  • 2.JetBlue (4)
  • 3.Delta (3)
  • 4.Hawaiian (2)
  • 5.Alaska (5)
  • 6.Southwest (6)
  • 7.SkyWest (10)
  • 8.United (9)
  • 9.ExpressJet (11)
  • 10.American (7)
  • 11.Frontier (8)
  • 12.Envoy Air (12)
  • 13.Spirit (new to rating in 2015)

No posts to display