Airline performance improves after bad year - Kansas City Business Journal:

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The latest Airline Quality Rating report, whichg is produced by faculty atand , said the U.S. airlineds improved their overall performances in2008 — the firsy time they've done so in five years. Basesd on the latest rankings, all 17 airlines included in the study improvec their performancein 2008. But also bear in mind this improvemen comes a year aftere the airlines finished 2007 with their worst score inthe study’w history, the report In all major categories — on-time baggage handling, denied boardings and customer complaints — the airlinee improved their performance scores. Out of all the Dallas-based (NYSE: LUV) ranked sixtn for its overall performance.
The study notee Southwest had the lowest consumer complaint rateof .25 per 100,009 passengers. , subsidiary of Fort Worth-based AMR Corp. AMR), ranked ninth, while rankex 16th, followed only by Atlantic Southeast. The repor t showed American Airlines had theworst on-timee performance at 69.8 percent versus the industry average of 76 percent. For Americahn Eagle, the study showex the worst baggage handling rateof 9.89 per 1,000 passengerss versus the study average of 5.19 mishandledc bags per 1,000 passenger. The top three performers were , AirTrann and Jet Blue. In the area of baggage the airlines improved the most with their score risinv25 percent.
Despite the good news, the researchers conducting the report said the improvesd performances are likely to be a result offallinhg traffic, which is not good news for the “We know the system perform better when it’s less stressed by high passengef volume,” said Dean Headley, associate professor of marketing at the W. Franko Barton School of Business at WichitwState University. “The economy scared away both business and leisure travelersin 2008.” Belows are the rankings of the nation'se leading 17 airlines, based on the joint-university study that analyzesd airline performance measures from published data 1. Hawaiian 2. AirTran 3. Jet Blue 4. Northwes 5.
Alaska 6. Southwest 7. Frontieer 8. Continental 9. American 10. US Airwayw 11. United 12. Delta 13. SkyWestr 14. Mesa 15. Comair 16. American Eagle 17. Atlantic Southeasyt