US Airline Quality Index - Legacy Carriers Not So Good -

This morning the US Airline Quality Index (AQI) for 2008 was published.

http://www.aqr.aero/index.htm

There is good news in that the ratings actually went up. Almost universally this has been attributed to the reduction in traffic. If nothing else this shows that it is both possible to improve and also that the incremental travellers need to be better serviced. Hmmm does that indicate that the airlines have too many staff/resources for the amount of current passengers or not enough for the peaks. THAT is an interesting question. But I digress.

If we look at the carriers in the list apart from Northwest (who astonishingly has come in at 4th position) Continental of the legacy network carriers is highest at 7th. The lowest positions are occupied by the Airlines and their feeder ACMI carriers. Delta being one of the worst off here.

So apart from the people who live in Detroit and Minneapolis who must either be expecting bailout money or someone has put something in the water ;-) , it shows that the smaller carriers do better on their own and provide a better service.

Here is the list:

1. Hawaiian

2. AirTran

3. JetBlue

4. Northwest

5. Alaska

6. Southwest

7. Frontier

8. Continental

9. American

10. US Airways

11. United

12. Delta

13. SkyWest

14. Mesa

15. Comair

16. American Eagle

17. Atlantic Southeast


Thanks to Professor Robert for this heads up.

Cheers