U.S. Airlines Ranked For Quality

(RTTNews) - Virgin America Inc. (VA) has retained its top ranking in airline quality among the thirteen biggest U.S. airlines in 2015 for the fourth year in a row. The ranking came on Monday, the same day that Alaska Air Group Inc. (ALK) said it has agreed to acquire Virgin America for $2.6 billion.

Despite a slightly lower score than in 2014, Virgin America retained its top position. JetBlue Airways Corp. (JBLU) rose two spots from the prior year to finish second, while Delta Air Lines Inc. (DAL) maintained its third position.

The rankings are part of the 26th annual Airline Quality Rating or AQR report, co-authored by Dean Headley, a researcher at Wichita State University's business school, and Brent Bowen, dean of the College of Aviation at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

The rankings rate the thirteen largest U.S. airlines in four categories over the 2015 calendar year.

The report showed that the airline industry improved slightly in overall performance quality over the previous year. Taking all the thirteen rated airlines together, the Airline Quality Rating or AQR score for the industry improved from a level of -1.24 in 2014 to -1.21 in 2015.

The study found that improved performance was seen in three of the four areas tracked, compared to the prior year. The airline industry improved its on-time arrival performance, rate of involuntary denied boardings and the rate of mishandled baggages.

However, the rate of customer complaints rose 37 percent from the prior year and to its highest level in 15 years, even with improved performance in important areas.

"Bigger has produced some operating gains for the airlines, but customer perceptions of poor outcomes are still reflected in a higher number of customer complaints for the year," said Dean Headley.

Six airlines - Delta, ExpressJet, JetBlue, SkyWest, Southwest, and United - showed improvement in AQR scores in 2015. Of these, ExpressJet and SkyWest had the largest improvements in their AQR scores for 2015.

Six other airlines - Alaska, American, Envoy Air, Frontier, Hawaiian and Virgin America - all had a decline in their 2015 AQR score. Frontier had the largest decline in AQR score for 2015.