The best airlines of the year
Customer complains rose by 38 per cent from 2014 to 2015
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Virgin America has emerged as America's best airline for the fourth year in a row.
JetBlue came second, followed by Delta Air Lines, according to Department of Transportation data presented in the 2016 Airline Quality Rating report.
Although overall industry performance improved in three of the four categories tracked, customer complains rose by 38 per cent from 2014 to 2015.
The top 13 airlines of the year
- Virgin America
- JetBlue
- Delta Airlines
- Hawaiian
- Alaska
- Southwest
- SkyWest
- United
- ExpressJet
- American
- Fronier
- Envoy Air
- Spirit
"This is the worst complaints have been for 15 years, as a rate. The last time it got this high was in 2001," report co-author Dean Headley, a researcher at Wichita State University's business school, told CNN.
Six of the 13 US airlines evaluated - JetBlue, Delta, ExpressJet, SkyWest, Southwest and United - improved their overall scores, while six others declined.
Delta, Alaska and Southwest maintained their positions this year, but United and American fell three places. American is the largest airline in the world and United is the third-largest carrier in the US. Spirit Airlines is new to the rankings.
Hawaiian Airlines came first in terms of on-time performance, arriving on-time 88.4 per cent of the time in 2015. Spirit Airlines, ranked last overall, had the worst on-time performance at 69 per cent.
Spirit also had the highest complaint rate with 11.73 out of 100,000 passengers registering complaints, while Alaska Airlines had the lowest complaint rate, with just 0.5 per 100,000 complaining.
Virgin America had the best record for baggage handling, while Envoy Air had the worst.
Envoy also had the highest rate of involuntary denied boardings - when airlines overbook their flights. JetBlue had the fewest overbooked flights.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments