US: Airline industry boasts overall improvements -- study

Despite a steady stream of headlines highlighting US airlines' customer-service failures, carriers have actually improved in several key areas over the last year, including bumping fewer passengers and losing less baggage, according to a study released Monday. The annual Airline Quality Rating (AQR), compiled by researchers at Wichita State and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical universities, found that US carriers in 2017 recorded improvements in the number of passengers denied boarding, mishandled baggage and customer complaints, even as high-profile instances of customer-service failures continue to plague the industry. The study's findings showed that airlines improved their performance in everything but on-time arrivals, the most heavily weighted of the four components. In that category, there was a decline of 1.2% versus the previous year. Based on data from the US DoT, the AQR rated Alaska Airlines the top carrier, followed closely by Delta on the basis of on-time performance, denied boarding, mishandled baggage and customer complaints. Ranked lowest of the 12 reported airlines were ultra-low-cost and low-cost carriers Frontier Airlines in 11th place and Spirit Airlines at the bottom of the heap.<br/>