Alaska Airlines Performance Declines the Most
In 2009, airlines did an overall better job of taking care of passengers and had a better performance altogether. However, this didn’t hold true for one airline in particular - Alaska Airlines - who fell the most in ranking on performance from 5 to 11.
We can’t sell Alaska Airlines short though, as their decline in ranking doesn’t necessarily mean that their performance was worse. Quite the contrary…their performance remained about the same. The reason the airline dropped so far in the ranking was because all of the airlines improved in some way, and this was such a big difference for Alaska Airlines to fall.
Taking the top of the list was Hawaiian airlines for a second year in a row. Other airlines to keep their spots were AirTran Airways at second, JetBlue Airways at third, Northwest Airlines in fourth and Frontier Airlines in seventh. So the improvement of performance from Southwest Airlines, Continental Airlines, US Airways, American Airlines and ExpressJet Airlines is what pushed Alaska Airlines down the list.
The Airline Quality Report, which was presented by associate professor of marketing at Wichita State University Dean Headley, uses information reported by the airlines to the US Department of Transportation, including on-time performance, mishandled bags, customer complaints and denied boardings (usually from overbookings). These determine an overall score for individual airlines and the industry.
Compared to the industry rating for midhandled bags, customer complaints and on-time performance from 2008, airlines did better last year. However, the industry did worse as far as denied boardings. At least they are getting better in a majority of the categories.
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