2 June 2023
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – Flight problems and customer complaints are concerns among travelers in the annual Airline Quality Rating released on Thursday by Wichita State University.
The report by co-authors Dr. Dean Headley and Dr. Brent Bowen showed that overall complaints increased by 55% in 2022, which pushed down quality scores for airlines in the report. The study looks at on-time performance, involuntary denied boardings, mishandled baggage and consumer complaints. Data from the U.S. Department of Transportation is instrumental in the analysis.
“If you did travel by air in 2022, chances are you saw busy airports, higher prices and performance issues. A decline in on-time performance, more denied boardings and a higher rate of mishandled baggage resulted in a higher number of complaints. All are to be expected with more people flying in the system,” Headley said. “The airlines have a big challenge in working through a quicker than expected return to pre-pandemic passenger volumes. They are trying, but it takes time to get everything back in place.”
Below is the 2022 ranking of the nation’s largest 10 airlines, according to the Airline Quality Rating, with the 2021 ranking in parentheses*:
Delta (1)
Alaska (3)
Hawaiian (4)
United (7)
American (5)
Southwest (2)
Allegiant (6)
JetBlue (8)
Spirit (10)
Frontier (9)
Delta had the best on-time performance for 2022 at 82.5%, while Allegiant had the worst on-time performance at 63.4%.
Frontier had the highest involuntary denied boardings rate at 2.66 per 10,000 passengers. Allegiant, Delta and Hawaiian had the lowest rates of involuntary denied boardings at 0.00 per 10,000 passengers.
Allegiant had the best baggage-handling performance under the new measurement approach (0.16 mishandled bags per 100 checked bags) of all airlines. American had the worst baggage-handling performance (0.94 mishandled bags per 100 checked bags) of all airlines.
Delta had the lowest consumer complaint rate (2.66 per 100,000 passengers) of all airlines rated. Spirit had the highest consumer complaint rate (10.10 per 100,000 passengers) of all airlines rated.