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The Best Airlines of 2013

Each year, an Airline Quality Ratings (AQR) report is released that evaluates 14 American airlines and ranks them from best to worst. Over 75 million people view and rely on the report, which rates the airlines according to four categories:

  • The percentage of flights that arrive on time
    • A flight is “on time” if it’s within 15 minutes of its scheduled hour.
  • The frequency of mishandled baggage
    • Mishandled baggage includes claims for lost, delayed, and damaged bags.
  • 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 involuntary denied boardings (“bumped” passengers)
    • Bumped passengers refer to those who have confirmed reservations but are denied boarding because the flight is oversold.

This report has been created every year for 23 years by Dr. Dean Headley, an associate professor of marketing at the W. Frank Barton School of Business of Wichita State University, and Dr. Brent Bowen, a professor and head of the Department of Aviation Technology at Purdue University College of Technology. The two use data compiled by the U.S. Department of Transportation to create AQR scores.

This year’s top airlines:

  1. Virgin America
  2. JetBlue Airways
  3. AirTran Airways
  4. Delta Air Lines
  5. Hawaiian Airlines
  6. Alaska Airlines
  7. Frontier Airlines
  8. Southwest Airlines
  9. US Airways
  10. American Airlines
  11. American Eagle
  12. SkyWest Airlines
  13. ExpressJet
  14. United Airlines

The latest AQR report featured Virgin America for the first time and the airline ended up rating the best, which is why our PHL parking facility recommends Virgin America as a great airline for your next vacation!