On-Time Flight, Baggage Handling Performance Eroded In 2004

The domestic airline industry, struggling to reverse a financial crisis, yesterday received more negative news when the U.S. Department of Transportation issued a report showing deteriorating customer service metrics. DOT's Air Travel Consumer Report for full-year 2004 included worse on-time performance data, a higher ratio of mishandled baggage, a growing number of customer complaints and more involuntary denied boardings.

AirTran, JetBlue and Hawaiian airlines posted comparably strong results. Among major carriers, Southwest Airlines generally performed best across the four categories. US Airways placed last among majors for both customer complaints and baggage handling.

Perhaps the most closely watched air consumer metric, on-time performance, dropped across the industry in 2004 nearly four points to 78.1 percent. Among carriers for which comparable numbers are available from 2003, only regional operator Atlantic Southeast Airlines posted a year-over-year improvement. Despite lower full-year scores, Hawaiian placed first with a 93.9 percent on-time score, followed by regional operator SkyWest and JetBlue. Among major carriers, Southwest again was most punctual, again followed by United. Independence Air and American regional affiliate American Eagle had the worst on-time performance among the 19 carriers included in the report. Among majors, America West and Delta finished last, sliding significantly down the ranks from 2003.

Drilling down to specific airports, a number of larger facilities had on-time arrival rates below 70 percent, including Chicago O'Hare, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Ft. Lauderdale, Newark, New York JFK, New York LaGuardia, Philadelphia, Raleigh-Durham, San Francisco and Seattle. Busier airports that finished with on-time arrival rates above 77 percent included Dallas Fort Worth, Denver and both Houston airports.

Meanwhile, Southwest, Alaska and Continental airlines were tops among major carriers in baggage handling, though none showed improved numbers from last year. American, Delta and US Airways also had higher mishandled baggage ratios from 2003 and finished 2004 at the bottom of list among majors. Overall industry baggage handling performance declined in 2004 to nearly five reports per 1,000 passengers, with 600,000 more reports filed than in 2003.

Among major carriers, US Airways drew the highest customer complaint ratio in the industry, while Southwest had the lowest. Most other airlines had only marginal changes to complaint ratios from 2003, but the industry as a whole garnered more complaints, in absolute terms and as a ratio to passenger enplanements, than last year.

As for involuntary denied boardings, JetBlue again had the fewest in the industry for the year, but its unblemished record of zero denied boardings in 2003 gave way to a total of 17 in 2004. The industry overall reported nearly 45,000 involuntarily denied boardings--up almost 3,000 from 2003--with Alaska, Delta and Continental among those with the highest ratios.