Every trip to the airport seems to bring longer security lines, more cramped coach seats and worse service — not to mention fewer perks included in the cost of a ticket. (Those complimentary peanuts are few and far between.)
Unremarkably, an Airline Quality Rating 2013 released on Monday paints a predictable picture of the industry: Results show "an industry that declined in overall performance quality over the previous year."
United's complaint rate rose from 2.21 per 100,000 passengers to 4.24 per 100,000 passengers over the past year.
On the whole, however, seven of the 12 carriers rated upped their overall scores — among them discount carriers JetBlue Airways, Southwest Airlines and Virgin America.
Meanwhile, Utah-based SkyWest and Chicago/Houston carrier United Airlines experienced the largest decline. The latter saw on-time arrival performance decline from 80.2 percent to 77.4 percent in the past year, with a mishandled baggage rate of 3.87 per 1,000 passengers (up from 3.66) and an involuntary denied boarding rate of 1.83 per 10,000 passengers (up from 1.01).
And customers didn't take these transgressions lightly. United's complaint rate rose from 2.21 per 100,000 passengers to 4.24 per 100,000 passengers over the past year. That put it at the bottom of the ranking in terms of quality.
For the study, researchers from Purdue University and Wichita State University looked at month-by-month ratings of U.S. airlines for the frequency of on-time arrivals, involuntary denied boardings, mishandled baggage and 12 customer complaint categories.
United Airlines ranked at the bottom of the Airline Quality Rating 2013.
