Academics name America's top airlines

(Hawaiian)

Academics from leading US colleges released the results of the annual Airline Quality Rating (AQR) report April 12, saying that overall airline performance has improved this year.

Hawaiian is the best airline in the US, say researchers, beating Airtran in second place by a narrow margin. The biggest change was seen with Alaska, which fell from fifth place to 11th. However, the overall rankings changed very little from 2008 to 2009, as the top four airlines remained the same.

The report, compiled jointly by Purdue University and Wichita State University, suggests that the contraction in the numbers of both flights and passengers led to an overall increase in the quality of passenger experience. It tracked the performance of 18 leading US airlines over the past 12 months.

The industry overall has improved in three major areas, said the researchers - on-time performance, baggage handling and customer complaints. Denied boarding, which represents oversold flights, is the only element where the performance of US airlines declined. Given the reduction in the number of seats as airlines try to tighten their belts, consumers should expect this, according to the researchers.

Researchers took their information from the US Department of Transportation's Air Travel Consumer Report. They then weighted factors based on passenger inconvenience (a lost bag, for instance, is deemed less inconvenient than a cancelled flight) to compile the ranking.

The best airlines in America

Below is the 2010 numerical ranking of the nation's leading 18 airlines, according to the Airline Quality Rating, with the 2009 ranking in parentheses:

1. Hawaiian (1)
2. AirTran (2)
3. JetBlue (3)
4. Northwest (4)
5. Southwest (6)
6. Continental (8)
7. Frontier (7)
8. US Airways (10)
9. American (9)
10. ExpressJet (not ranked in 2009 report)
11. Alaska (5)
12. Mesa (14)
13. United (11)
14. SkyWest (13)
15. Delta (12)
16. Comair (15)
17. Atlantic Southeast (17)
18. American Eagle (16)
Data from Airline Quality Rating http://aqr.aero/