For Immediate Release
April 20,1998
Tia Harrison
UNO Coordinator of Media Relations
(402)554-3502
Joseph Kleinsasser
WSU News & Media Relations Dir.
(316) 978-3013
Southwest Airlines retains top spot in Airline Quality Rating
For the third consecutive year Southwest Airlines was rated the top airline in a study ranking 10 U.S. major airlines. The results of the national Airline Quality Rating study were announced in a news conference today (April 20) in Washington, D.C.
The rating is conducted annually by the W. Frank Barton School of Business at Wichita State University and the University of Nebraska at Omaha. The AQR, as an industry standard, provides consumers and industry watchers a means to compare quality among airlines using objective performance-based data. It is a cooperative research project funded as part of faculty research activities at WSU and UNO with additional support from the NASA Nebraska Space Grant Consortium.
The AQR ranked the nine major airlines as follows: 1) Southwest, 2) Alaska, 3) Continental, 4) American, 5) United, 6) Delta, 7) Northwest, 8) America West, 9) TWA and 10) US Airways.
The rating for the previous year was: 1) Southwest, 2) American, 3) United, 4) Delta, 5) Continental, 6) Northwest, 7) US Airways 8), America West and 9) TWA.
The AQR is a summary of month-by-month quality ratings for major domestic U.S. airlines operating during 1997. A major airline, as defined by the U.S. Department of Transportation, is an airline whose operating revenue for a 12-month period is $1 billion or more. Co-researchers Dean Headley, associate professor of marketing at WSU, and Brent Bowen, director of the UNO Aviation Institute, used 19 factors important to consumers when judging the quality of airline service.
"The good news for the airline industry is that the overall quality rating is the highest it's been since we began this study in 1991," says Headley. "One troublesome finding is that consumer complaints for 1997 are 20 percent higher than in 1996. Increased consumer dissatisfaction seems to indicate that how things are done is just as important as what gets done."
Factors included in the rating scale were taken from an initial list of more than 80 factors. The factors then were screened to meet two basic criteria: 1) a factor must be readily obtainable from published data sources for each airline, and 2) a factor must be important to consumers regarding airline quality. The criteria include areas such as baggage handling, fares, customer service, safety, financial viability and frequent-flyer award programs, among others.
"The AQR does not suggest that an airline lower in the rankings is unsafe, only that you are more likely to have a satisfactory experience on a higher ranked airline," says Bowen. "Consumers appear more frustrated than ever with airline performance in general, and are seeking ways to minimize difficulty. Loyalty to an airline is being replaced by pursuit of satisfaction and convenience since flying on an airline for the average person is no longer a luxury."
Other major findings in this year's research study include:
MEDIA NOTE: Headley will be available for interviews at the Willard Intercontinental Hotel in Washington, D.C., by telephone following the news conference. Call (202) 628-9100 until 3 p.m. today (Monday, April 20). Taped comments by the AQR research team are available via the WSU Radio Newsline at (316) 978-3682, beginning at 8 a.m. CDT Monday, April 20, through Sunday, April 25.
An electronic version of the full report's narrative is available at the following address: http://cid.unomaha.edu/~unoai
Hard copies of the 1998 AQR report may be ordered by calling the WSU department of marketing at (316) 978-3367.