Low-Cost Airlines Top List in Performance Survey

Three of the top four airlines in 2003 were low-cost carriers, with JetBlue Airways Corp. leading the pack with the best overall performance, according to an annual study released Monday.

The study’s authors say the report showed why low-fare airlines are gobbling up market share from traditional carriers: They’re on time more, they bump fewer passengers, they mishandle less baggage and they generate fewer complaints.

The report “adds further evidence to the emerging performance gap between the legacy carriers and the no-frills network carriers,” said Brent Bowen, director of the University of Nebraska’s aviation institute and a co-author of the study.

The report was based on Transportation Department statistics.

JetBlue arrived punctually 86% of the time in 2003, the first year that the airline carried enough passengers to be ranked. So few JetBlue passengers were bumped that they did not register in the statistics used by researchers. Its customers also filed fewer complaints -- 0.31 per 100,000 -- to the Transportation Department than all other airlines but Southwest Airlines Co.

Southwest, with 0.14 complaint per 100,000 customers, consistently generates the lowest complaint rate in the industry and was rated as the No. 3 carrier in the report.

Alaska Air Group Inc.’s Alaska Airlines came in second; America West Holdings Corp.-owned America West ranked fourth; and US Airways Group Inc., which ranked No. 1 in last year’s study while still in bankruptcy, was fifth.

Northwest Airlines Corp. came in sixth. It ranked ninth in 2002.

The study’s authors said the low-cost airlines performed well in ways that were important to their passengers.

Dean Headley, the other co-author and an associate professor of marketing at Wichita State University in Kansas, said most low-cost carriers were above the industry average on four performance indicators last year. Most traditional airlines were below the average, he said.

“The low-fare carriers are definitely solid in their ability to attract passengers, and it shows in the market share gains that they’re making,” Headley said.

He said low-cost airlines made up 4% of the market when he began the study in 1991. Now they carry one-quarter of all passengers; Headley expects them to transport four in 10 by 2006.

The report rated the 14 U.S. airlines that carried at least 1% of the 587 million passengers who flew last year. Four low-cost carriers -- AirTran Holdings Inc., ATA Holdings Corp., Atlantic Southeast Airlines Inc. and JetBlue -- met that threshold for the first time in 2003.

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Top airlines

Here’s how the airlines ranked based on 15 elements important to consumers.

1. JetBlue Airways

2. Alaska Airlines

3. Southwest Airlines

4. America West

5. US Airways

6. Northwest Airlines

7. Continental Airlines

8. AirTran

9. United Airlines

10. ATA

11. American Airlines

12. Delta Air Lines

13. American Eagle

14. Atlantic Southeast

Sources: University of Nebraska at Omaha Aviation Institute and W. Frank Barton School of Business at Wichita State University

Los Angeles Times