Airline passengers got a bumpy ride in 2007
WASHINGTON — If you were an airline passenger last year and had a bad flight experience, you weren’t alone.
A national survey of airline quality released Monday said more bags were lost, more passengers were bumped, more consumers complained and fewer flights arrived on time in 2007 than in 2006.
The overall "quality score" the researchers gave the industry (-2.16) was the lowest in the nearly two decades they’ve been studying the airlines.
The past year "was the worst year ever for the U.S. airlines," said Brent Bowen, a study co-author and professor at the Aviation Institute at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. "Overall operational performance and quality declined once again to the lowest level that it’s ever been."
The survey report comes at a difficult time for the industry, given rising fuel prices, safety problems and bankruptcy troubles that shut down three carriers last week. ATA, Aloha Airlines and Skybus stopped flying because of financial pressures.
Major airlines also have slashed jobs while adding fees for second bags, traveling with pets and booking tickets by phone. And American, Southwest, Delta and United airlines have all had to cancel flights recently to perform safety inspections on some of their planes.
Last month, the Federal Aviation Administration hit Southwest with a $10.2 million civil penalty for missing safety inspections and then continuing to fly planes with passengers on board even after realizing the mistake. Early on, Southwest said it planned to appeal. More recently, however, the company has said it has requested an informal conference with the FAA to negotiate the penalty.
A trade group for the major U.S check cash advance. carriers, the Air Transport Association, declined to comment on the airline quality report.
According to the study, the rate of consumer complaints was up 60 percent last year. US Airways had the most complaints. Southwest had the fewest. In all, complaints were up for 15 of the 16 airlines included in the study. Mesa Airlines was the exception.
About 37 percent of the complaints were for flight problems, including canceled or averted flights, said Dean Headley, an associate professor at Wichita State University and co-author of the study. About 20 percent of the complaints concerned baggage — stolen, lost or damaged. Another top complaint, at about 11 percent, was poor customer service.
On-time arrivals dropped for the fifth straight year, with more than one-quarter of all flights late, according to the survey. Southwest had the best on-time performance; Atlantic Southeast had the worst.
The rate of passengers bumped from overbooked flights also increased, up 13 percent. Jet Blue had the fewest bumped passengers; Atlantic Southeast had the most.
For lost bags, the industry overall had about seven mishandled bags for every 1,000 passengers — up from 6.5 in 2006. AirTran had the fewest mishandled bags, four for every 1,000 passengers. Headley said AirTran’s good showing helped propel the airline from the No. 3 spot in the 2006 rankings to No. 1 last year.