AIR TRAN TAKES TOP AQR SPOT, INDUSTRY
SCORE FALLS TO NEW LOW
Washington D.C. – Air Tran has taken the top spot in the
18th annual national Airline Quality Ratings (AQR) study.
Last year, Air Tran ranked third in the AQR.
Following Air Tran in the
top five of the AQR were Jet Blue, Southwest, Northwest and
Frontier.
As far as an overall rating for the industry, this is the
worst AQR score ever, according to the AQR researchers. The
second worst was for calendar year 2000. There are
similarities between 2000 and 2007, specifically:
-During both 2000 and 2007 there was talk of the
United States heading into a recession;
-The airlines were making money after a
nonprofitable period; and
-Demand for air travel was strong.
The AQR is a summary of
month-by-month quality ratings for the largest domestic U.S.
airlines operating during 2007. Co-researchers Brent Bowen,
professor at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO)
Aviation Institute/School of Public Administration, and Dean
Headley, associate professor and chair of marketing at
Wichita State University (WSU), used 15 elements important
to consumers when judging the quality of airline service.
Air Tran gained ground in
the industry and in the ratings because of superior baggage
handling. Taken as an entire industry, the airlines
declined in all areas of performance, Bowen said. “I
don’t expect to see better airline performance in the near
future. There’s no incentive,” Headley said. “The airlines
are losing money. Fuel prices are high. They’re cutting back
on services. They’re cutting back on people. Everything it
takes to run an airline is more expensive, and the airlines
want less of that expense.”
Sixteen airlines were studied for the 2008 ratings report.
The Airline Report Card is a unique figure that shows each
airlines' individual rating since the AQR began 18 years
ago. This visual aid offers invaluable historical reporting
opportunities, Bowen said. It is available on-line at
aqr.aero
Researchers at the UNO
Aviation Institute and the W. Frank Barton School of
Business at WSU conduct the ratings annually. The AQR, as an
industry standard, provides consumers and industry watchers
a means to compare quality among airlines using objective
performance-based data. It is a joint research project
funded as part of faculty research activities at UNO and
WSU.
"With the U.S. airline industry at rock-bottom in terms of
overall performance, greater accountability is necessary.
It is very difficult for air travel consumers to have a
collective voice,” Bowen said. “The
AQR.aero research team is
providing new mechanisms for the everyday passenger to be
heard.”
The air traveler can make a
difference through participating in the
aqr.aero research survey,
the first of several new tools to aid the traveling public.
Just go to
aqr.aero and click on the
‘survey’ link. By participating, travelers will have access
to the Web site’s future airline service problem reporting
feature. This will also help researchers gather valuable
data that may help slow the substantial decline in airline
service performance that they reported this year.
The AQR scores for the largest airlines for 2007 resulted
in the following ranking:
1. Air Tran
2. Jet Blue
3. Southwest
4. Northwest
5. Frontier
6. Continental
7. Alaska
8. United
9. American
10. Delta
11. US Airways
12. Mesa
13. SkyWest
14. Comair
15. American Eagle
16. Atlantic Southeast
Criteria included in the AQR are screened to meet two basic
elements: They must be readily obtainable from published
data sources for each airline, and they must be important to
consumers regarding airline quality. The resulting criteria
include areas such as baggage handling, customer complaints,
denied boardings and on-time arrivals.
Other major industry findings in this year’s research study
include:
Only four of the 16 airlines improved their AQR score. They
were Air Tran, American Eagle, Atlantic Southeast and Mesa.
The most improved airline was Mesa; it improved in three of
the four categories – denied boardings, mishandled bags and
customer complaints. Its on-time performance was similar to
last year.
The airline that declined
the most in performance was US Airways.
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Media Notes:
Media unable to attend
the news conference in Washington, D.C., may receive a copy
of the AQR news release on the day of the news conference
(April 7) by contacting either of the following:
Shannon Littlejohn at WSU,
by phone: (316) 978-3820 by fax (316) 978-3776, or by e-mail
at shannon.littlejohn@wichita.edu.
Beverly Newsam at UNO, by phone: (402) 554-2129, by fax
(402) 554-3541, or by e-mail at bnewsam@mail.unomaha.edu.
Taped comments by Dean
Headley will be available via the WSU Radio Newsline
http://www.wichita.edu/thisis/wsunews/news/?nid=182/newsline
beginning at 8:30 a.m. (CDT) Monday, April 7. Brent Bowen
will have comments available on the UNO Radio News Line
beginning at 8:30 a.m. (CDT) Monday, April 7, at
http://www.unomaha.edu/news/releases/2008/04/index.php.
Headley will be available for interviews Monday after the
news conference. Telephone the Willard Hotel in Washington,
D.C., at (202) 628-9100. Ask for the room of Dean Headley.
Bowen is available after the press conference by calling
(402) 554-3502.
Contact: Joe Kleinsasser, WSU director of news and media
relations, (316) 204-8266 (cell) or
joe.kleinsasser@wichita.edu; Lainie Rusco, WSU news and
media relations, (316) 617-3172 (cell); or Tim Kaldahl, UNO
director of university relations, (402) 554-3502 or (402)
672-0828 (cell) or
tkaldahl@mail.unomaha.edu.
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