Airline Complaints Departments Oddly Quiet

Amid all the grim news about the US airline industry, here's one (somewhat) uplifting tidbit--fewer Americans are complaining about their airline experiences.

In fact, the industry had its best performance as judged by quality in four years, according to a study released today. The study, based on statistics reported to the federal government and analyzed by researchers from Wichita State University and Saint Louis University, gave top marks to Hawaiian Airlines while Atlantic Southeast came in last in the survey of 17 US carriers.

The legacy carriers--American, United, Delta, Continental, and Northwest--were lumped in the middle of the pack. But all of them showed improvement over 2007, a year researchers said was the worst in terms of quality performance in a decade. Of all the airlines, US Airways showed the most improvement from 2007 to 2008.

But before any of the airlines rush out new ads to trumpet their standings in the survey, remember this--the industry got slammed hard by oil prices and the recession, which led to reduced schedules and fewer people at the nation's airports. Fewer people in the skies means fewer demands on the system, and therefore fewer complaints.

"We know the system performs better when it's less stressed by high passenger volume," Dean Headley, one of the study's authors and an associate professor of marketing Wichita State University, said in a news release accompanying the survey. "The economy scared away both business and leisure travelers in 2008."

In a phone interview with Portfolio.com, the study's other author--Brent Bowen, chairman of the aviation science department at Saint Louis University--said stats don't distinguish between the leisure and business traveler experiences, but he encouraged readers to go to the study's website and fill out a survey to add some light on the leisure vs. business distinction (or, to see if there even is one).

Bowen said the study showed the travel experience had gotten "a little bit better, but not a whole lot better yet. The good news is that the downward trend has stopped."

Sure, for now.

by J. Jennings Moss

Source: Airline Quality Rating