Domestic travelers flocked to planes in droves in 2021, but airlines many times failed to get them, and their luggage, to their destinations on time, according to Wichita State University's annual Airline Quality Rating released today.
According to AQR researchers Dr. Dean Headley and Dr. Brent Bowen, fewer planes arrived on time, more baggage was mishandled, and more passengers with booked tickets were bumped from their flights. While the number of complaints submitted with the Department of Transportation decreased considerably from 2020, when many customers were seeking COVID reimbursements, the total number of complaints remained higher than average.
“Within the industry, there is a lot of talk about the airlines being back from the pandemic, but performance was worse in three of the four major indicators,” said Headley, emeritus associate professor of marketing at the W. Frank Barton School of Business at Wichita State University. “We have the history to show that as passenger volume rises, so do performance problems. It could take another two or three years for airlines to address these issues.”
Why did airline performance decline? Staffing and plane inventory are two key problems, according to Headley.
“Airlines want to hire people but they have not been able to do it quickly,” Headley said. “The pandemic forced airlines to lay off pilots as well as baggage handlers and gate agents. Many of those folks took other jobs and they aren’t coming back.”
Below is the 2021 ranking of the nation’s largest 10 airlines, according to the Airline Quality Rating, with the 2020 ranking in parentheses:
1. Southwest (1)
2. Hawaiian (9)
3. Delta (3)
4. Allegiant (2)
5. Alaska (4)
6. United (8)
7. Frontier (10)
8. JetBlue (6)
9. American (7)
10. Spirit (5)
Delta had the lowest consumer complaint rate (1.29 per 100,000 passengers).
Spirit had the highest consumer complaint rate (11.45 per 100,000 passengers).
An electronic version of the full report, with details on each airline, is available at https://www.wichita.edu/aqr.
Follow KNX News 97.1 FM
Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | TikTok
Related
Related
