Airlines' Quality Wanes

Apr 02, 03:02 AM

Current Headlines: By Molly McMillin, The Wichita Eagle, Kan.

Apr. 2--Lost bags, late flights and more plague travelers

More flights arrived late, more bags were mishandled and more passengers were bumped from flights by U.S. airlines in 2006, a study shows.

Only one area -- the number of passenger complaints to the U.S. Department of Transportation -- improved from a year ago, although only slightly.

Those are some of the findings in the new 2007 Airline Quality Rating, an annual ranking of commercial U.S. airlines. Later today, the overall ratings for individual airlines will be released.

The report, which is watched closely by the airline industry and consumer groups, is co-authored by Dean Headley, a Wichita State University associate professor of marketing and chairman of the department of marketing and entrepreneurship.

"The industry is going the wrong direction," Headley said. "I don't know anything's going to head that off in the near future, the way the nature of the business is changing."

The study showed that airline performance overall was down, although some airlines improved.

Some of the findings include:

--Southwest Airlines had the fewest number of complaints.

--Hawaiian Airlines had the best on-time and baggage handling performances.

--Jet Blue had the lowest rate of denied boardings.

On the flip side:

--Atlantic Southeast Airlines had the worst on-time performance, denied boardings and baggage handling rate of all airlines.

--United Airlines and U.S. Airways had the highest number of complaints.

One reason for the decline in customer service may be that there are fewer airline employees, Headley said.

Nearly 160,000 fewer employees are working for the airlines than did five years ago, including those who worked at ticket counters, in maintenance and on the tarmac handling baggage, he said.

"You just can't operate a system as efficiently with that many fewer people and not have it be noticed somewhere along the line," Headley said.

At the same time, the number of passengers using the airlines is up. About 810 million people flew commercially last year, either domestically or internationally, Headley said.

At any given time, an average of about 50,000 people in the U.S. are on a commercial flight, he said.

Headley speculates that fewer people complained last year because basic expectations have dropped.

"People have figured out it doesn't do much good," he said. "Now people say, 'If you get me there, I'm happy.' "

Nearly half of all complaints involved cancellations, delays, schedule changes or baggage issues, the report said.

One reason that there are more baggage problems is that there are more regional jets in use, Headley said. And they have more weight and balance issues than larger aircraft, he said.

"So they will leave bags on the tarmac," Headley said. "It's better to leave bags than leave passengers."

At the same time, a new trend may be developing.

Florida-based discount carrier Spirit Airlines said recently that beginning in June, it plans to charge passengers $10 for each checked bag, the first U.S. carrier to charge for checked luggage.

Charging for bags has been going on in Europe for more than a year, Headley said. Other U.S. airlines could follow Spirit's lead.

"This person has now paid extra money to have that parcel arrive with him," Headley said. If it doesn't, he said, "what kind of a mess is that going to create?

"It's going to get ugly."

Reach Molly McMillin at 316-269-6708 or mmcmillin@wichitaeagle.com [mailto:mmcmillin@wichitaeagle.com].

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Copyright (c) 2007, The Wichita Eagle, Kan.

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