US Airlines 2014’s Worst Performers: More Delayed Flights, More Lost Bags, Most Customers Complaints

Passengers and airline staff stand near a check-in desk of an airline that cancelled its flight out of Tel Aviv at Ben Gurion International airport July 22, 2014. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) banned U.S. carriers from flying to or from Ben Gurion International Airport, after a rocket fired from Gaza struck near the airport's fringes, injuring two people. European airlines including Germany's Lufthansa, Air France and Dutch airline KLM said they were halting flights there too. Israel's flagship carrier El Al continued flights as usual. Reuters/Stringer

The latest Airline Quality Rating report released on Monday has revealed U.S. airlines have been the worst performers in 2014 in the global aviation industry. American airlines failed customers in all four categories, including baggage handling, consumer complaints, denied boardings and on-time arrivals. The report noted it was saddening when the U.S. airlines lorded them all in just 2013.

Brent Bowen of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Arizona and report co-author said the poor performance may have been affected by continuous winter storms. Still, he believed there is a bigger picture, and that would be the airline mergers and consolidations. Bowen said the latter are taking a “systemic toll” that is becoming bad for the consumers. “We hope it’s not the beginning of a downward trend.”

Almost always, after two airlines merge, Airline Quality Rating performance goes down for several years, Bowen said. This happens because the airlines operate while ironing out their kinks.

He cited the cases of Delta which merged with Northwest in 2008. “Delta has worked its way back to the top tier.” But it’s different with United which continue to face problems after its merger with Continental in 2010, which then also merged in 2011 with AirTrain. United, Bowen said, declined in all four report areas.

Of the 12 individual airlines featured in the report, only three had improved scores. These were Delta, Southwest and Hawaiian. The study releases its analyses based on data on passengers bumped from their seats, mishandled baggage, on-time performance and customer complaints. The figures are readily available from the US Department of Transportation.

Among other findings in the report:

LATENESS: The percentage of flights that arrived on time fell to 76.2 percent last year from 78.4 percent in 2013. Best: Hawaiian Airlines. Worst: Envoy Air, which operates most American Eagle flights.

LOST BAGS: The rate of lost, stolen or delayed bags rose 13 percent in 2014. Best: Virgin America. Worst: Envoy. Airlines lose one bag for every 275 or so passengers, but at Envoy, the rate is one lost bag for every 110 passengers, according to government figures.

OVERBOOKING: The rate of passengers getting bumped from flights rose 3 percent. Best: Virgin America. Worst: a tie, between SkyWest and its ExpressJet subsidiary.

COMPLAINTS: Consumer complaints to the government jumped 22 percent in 2014. Best: Alaska Airlines. Worst: Frontier.

How the 12 U.S. airlines ranked in 2014. Number in parenthesis was their 2013 rank:

1. Virgin America (1)

2. Hawaiian (3)

3. Delta (4)

4. JetBlue (2)

5. Alaska (5)

6. Southwest (8) (includes AirTran)

7. American (9) (includes USAirways)

8. Frontier (11)

9. United (12) (includes Continential)

10. SkyWest (14)