Scientific Evidence: "Airlines Suck"

The Airline Quality Rating study is based on Transportation Department statistics for airlines that carry at least 1 percent of the passengers who flew domestically last year. The research is sponsored by the Aviation Institute at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and by Wichita State University.

Among the study’s conclusions:

Travelers increasingly are unhappy with airlines, ranking lost luggage among their biggest complaints, according to an annual survey by university researchers that rates carriers’ quality.



Passenger complaints increased 17 percent last year over 2004 and the rate of mishandled baggage jumped from 4.83 per 1,000 passengers to 6.06 in 2005.

Customer satisfaction last year was the lowest since 2000, said Hedley, an associate professor at Wichita State University in Kansas.

The height of delays, cancellations and anger over being left stranded in terminals was reached five years ago, partly because of weather woes and passenger volume.

Passengers are now returning to pre-Sept. 11, 2001, levels, but there are 200,000 fewer airline employees to serve them.

Southwest Airlines had the lowest rate of complaints, 0.18 per 100,000 passengers; US Airways had the highest, 1.86.
ATA had the highest rate of denied boardings, 2.75 per 10,000 passengers; JetBlue had the lowest at 0.
AirTran had the best baggage handling rate, mishandling 3.43 bags per 1,000 passengers; Atlantic Southeast had the worst, mishandling 17.41 bags per 1,000 passengers.