Last year, we wrote a blog about The Best Airlines of 2013, so we thought we’d do a follow-up and write about the best airlines of 2014.
The Airline Quality Rating study is conducted every year by Dr. Dean Headley, a professor of marketing at the W. Frank Barton School of Business of Wichita State University, and Dr. Brent Bowen, former professor at Purdue University but now the Dean of the College of Aviation at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
This year, 15 airlines were evaluated instead of the regular 14, and the findings showed that “the industry improved in overall performance quality over the previous year” and that this year’s score was the best in the 23 years the survey has been conducted.
The study focuses on four categories:
- The frequency of mishandled baggage
- Mishandled baggage includes claims for lost, delayed, and damaged bags.
- The percentage of flights that arrive on time
- A flight is “on time” if it’s within 15 minutes of its scheduled hour.
- The number of customer complaints received
- These complaints include flight problems, fares, reservations, baggage, oversales, refunds, disability, advertising, animals, discrimination, customer service, and other.
- The rate of “bumped” passengers
- Bumped passengers refer to those who have confirmed reservations but are denied boarding because the flight is oversold.
This year’s top airlines:
- Virgin America
- JetBlue Airways
- Hawaiian Airlines
- Delta Airlines
- Alaska Airlines
- Endeavor Air
- US Airways
- Southwest Airlines
- American Airlines
- Air Tran Airways
- Frontier Airlines
- United Airlines
- ExpressJet Airlines
- SkyWest Airlines
- American Eagle Airlines
Our PHL Airport parking members have always enjoyed Virgin America and are pleased that the airline has topped the list again this year. So, for your next vacation, why not consider flying with Virgin?
To view the entire AQR report, click here.