The 17th annual national Airline Quality Ratings study have just been released and the newly included Hawaiian Airlines beat out Jet Blue for the top spot (they were going for their fourth consecutive win). Coming in third was AirTran followed by Frontier and Northwest. The study is based on the finding of university research that gauges customer's responses to 15 different elements. Hawaiian Airlines took the top prize based partly on their top performance for on-time arrivals (93%) and baggage handling (about 3 bags per 1,000 customers were mishandled). Overall performance for the airline industry in three of the four major areas was worse than in 2005 according to the study. Here are some more interesting stats from this year's study-
- 1 out of every 3 Atlantic Southeast Airlines flights wasn't on time
- On average 1 in every 4 flight in 2006 was late
- Atlantic Southeast Airline mishandles more bags than anyone else, more than five times more than Hawaiian Airlines (over 17 bags per 1,000 customers)
- Southwest Airlines had the lowest customer complaint rate
- United and US Airways had the highest customer complaint rate
You can view the full report here (warning: PDF file).
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Related travel guides: Getting to Hilo, Kona, Volcano, Big Island of Hawaii
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