New year, new story? An air travel consumer report released last Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) shows that US based carriers actually did pretty well in 2013 (or at least better than 2012).
Overall, air travel complaints were down 14.1 percent from 2012, with 2013 garnering a total of 13,168 complaints, down from the previous year’s 15,338. Southwest Airlines had the least complaints once again, followed by frenemies Alaska and Delta. Yahoo! reported on the results earlier this week and I love this bit about United:
Despite its 15th position on the DOT report, United spokesman Rahsaan Johnson noted the airline’s 50% improvement from its DOT approval rating in 2012 and said internal ratings rose 70%. “We spend a great deal of time looking at surveys that come back from customers – at least 8,000 per day, along with emails and letters, and reports from the DOT,” he told Yahoo Travel. “We’re very happy that we’re making progress in meeting customer expectations, getting customers to their destinations and delivering a pleasant experience. We’re not done, though, and we recognize we’re not done.”
On time rankings were no surprise and have been quite similar for the last few years. Hawaiian Airlines was number one at 93.3% (also #1 last year), followed by Alaska (87.2%) and Delta (84.5%). The bottom of the pack included the regionals – American Eagle (72.1%) and Expressjet (72.8%) as well as Frontier (73.1%). Surprisingly, Southwest was also near the bottom for arrival times (76.7%).
Check out the full report here.
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