Monday, April 2, 2012

The airline industry had its best performance in two decades, according to a new study.

The Airline Quality rating is conducted annually by researchers Dean Headley of Wichita State University and Brent Bowen of Purdue University.

According to the AQR, AirTran is the best-performing airline of 2011. Hawaiian, JetBlue, Frontier and Alaska followed. The second five are Delta, Southwest, US Airways, SkyWest and American.

Headly said the AQR measures performance in baggage handling, on-time arrivals, customer complaints and involuntary denied boardings.

“All of those got better, but involuntary denied boardings was dramatically improved, by 30 percent,” Headly said.

Headley said future improvement in airline performance depends a great deal on infrastructure.

“But more than anything it has to do with whether or not we get an updated air traffic control system so they can handle the volume and the passengers better,” he said.

This is the 22nd year for the annual report.