The Wall Street Journal recently released its rankings of major U.S airlines based on several key operational metrics. These metrics include on-time arrivals, flight cancellations, extreme delays, baggage handling, tarmac delays, involuntary bumping, and complaints.
Rankings Overview
The rankings are based on seven equally weighted measures, with the first three provided by Pulse, an aviation data unit of Anuvu, covering the entire calendar year. The remaining measures, provided by the Transportation Department, cover the latest 12-month period available. It’s important to note that the complaints data is for a seven-month period ending in May due to a backlog at the DOT.
Airlines Performance Breakdown
Here is a breakdown of how each airline performed in the different categories:
- Delta: Ranked 1st overall with the highest scores in on-time arrivals, flight cancellations, mishandled baggage, and involuntary bumping.
- Alaska: Ranked 2nd overall with high scores in on-time arrivals, flight cancellations, and extreme delays.
- Allegiant: Ranked 3rd overall with notable performance in flight cancellations, tarmac delays, and involuntary bumping.
- Southwest: Ranked 4th overall with strong performance in on-time arrivals, extreme delays, and baggage handling.
- American: Ranked 5th overall, demonstrating satisfactory performance across various metrics.
- United: Ranked 6th overall with average scores, particularly in flight cancellations and involuntary bumping.
- Spirit: Ranked 7th overall with consistent performance in flight cancellations and mishandled baggage.
- Frontier: Ranked 8th overall with room for improvement, especially in extreme delays and mishandled baggage.
- JetBlue: Ranked last overall, indicating areas for improvement in all metrics.
Sources: Anuvu (on-time arrivals, flight cancellations, extreme delays); U.S. Transportation Department (tarmac delays, mishandled baggage, involuntary bumping, consumer complaints)