Southwest Tops Service Study

<B>Southwest Tops Service Study</B>

By David Jonas

Southwest Airlines returned to the top spot in the latest airline service quality study, its fourth number-one ranking in five years. Continental placed second and Delta third while last year's top achiever, US Airways, slid to sixth; United finished with the lowest score. Overall, the annual study found that the "industry is declining relative to customer performance criteria."

The study, conducted by the W. Frank Barton School of Business at Wichita State University and the University of Nebraska at Omaha Aviation Institute ranked each of the 10 major U.S. carriers according to weighted scores from on-time performance, denied boardings, mishandled baggage and customer complaints. The data was drawn from the U.S. Department of Transportation's monthly Air Travel Consumer Report.

Southwest's success in 1999 was attributed to an improved denied boarding ratio and better baggage handling. The study noted that Southwest's customer complaints were "by far" the lowest in the industry.

Northwest and Alaska finished behind Delta while American, America West and TWA finished between US Airways and basement dweller United, which again suffered from the industry's worst baggage handling and an increase in denied boardings and customer complaints.

The researchers concluded that "continued performance decline and consumer dissatisfaction indicate that airline consumers have reached the limits of tolerance and are expecting that the industry and government respond in a more considerate manner in addressing their concerns."

Moving forward, the report concluded that business travel may be on the decline as business travelers "find reasons not to fly in an unfriendly environment and are turning in record numbers to private air charter options." Also, the researchers said, labor issues are playing a role in 2000 as negotiations come due for nearly all of the major domestic airlines.

Furthermore, the hub-and-spoke system is expected to reach saturation in the coming years, prompting travelers to demand point-to-point service with regional jets. Finally, the report predicted electronic access to the airlines will benefit consumers by circumventing unnecessary costs, but it will "depersonalize service to the point that consumer travel preferences are not recognized and met.