The Best (and Worst) Airlines of 2013 in the US

Travel is an ice-jammed nightmare now, but travelers have been getting used to more problems: Last year was one of the worst for airline reliability of the past five years.

Delays went up and more flights were canceled in 2013 than 2012, even though airlines again reduced the number of flights crowding airports, according to FlightStats Inc., which tracked more than 8 million trips last year. About 78% of flights on U.S. airlines arrived on-time last year, down from 80% in 2012.

That's a significant move, reflecting hundreds of flights each day. On-time performance is a barometer for airline performance, influencing baggage handling, cancellations, complaints and other areas. Two measures of extreme customer impact worsened sharply: The number of flights delayed excessively by 45 minutes or more increased 13% and the number of flights canceled jumped 15%, according to FlightStats.

More luggage was lost or delayed last year, too, partly because Southwest Airlines, the lone major carrier to still offer two free checked bags to customers, stumbled. Southwest mishandled more bags than United Airlines and Delta Air Lines combined, according to the most recent Transportation Department data, which covers 12 months ending last October.

The good news? Fewer passengers got involuntarily bumped from flights, according to the DOT, and fewer customers complained to the DOT about airline service. Airlines have gotten more aggressive about intercepting gripes with emailed surveys and social media.
In the Middle Seat's annual scorecard of airline service, tracking seven different key measures of airline performance, Alaska Airlines performed best in 2013 among major carriers. At the top with Alaska was Delta, which for the past two years has posted far better operational results than big competitors. Worst among big airlines? United Airlines and American Airlines, again.

On the whole, it was a mediocre year for airline reliability, the second-worst of the past five in terms of on-time arrivals (2011 was slightly worse), according to FlightStats. And it was the worst of the last five in delays over 45 minutes. That's surprising. There were fewer flights flown than any year of the past nine because of airline mergers and capacity reductions. Less-crowded skies and airports ought to yield speedier service.

After benign weather in 2012, "2013 returned to a more normal weather pattern," said Bill Lentsch, senior vice president of airport customer service at Delta Air Lines.
But several carriers ran into issues of their own making. Southwest, for example, wrote schedules based on better weather the previous two years. That shaved some minutes off flying time and shortened time between flights on the ground, allowing the airline to offer more flights and connections to customers without adding aircraft.
Then bad weather, fuller airplanes that took longer to load and unload and the tight schedule combined to create more delays. "It did slow down our operation more than I'd like," said Mike Van de Ven, Southwest's chief operating officer. Schedules are being rewritten, he said, but the changes won't take hold until the second half of 2014. Seattle-based Alaska has the benefit of few flights on the East Coast of the U.S., where weather and airport congestion can be punishing. It does, though, face the challenge of sometimes harsh conditions in Alaska.
The airline has been a pioneer in new-generation, satellite-based navigation that can let planes fly into and out of airports that otherwise would be shut down by low visibility.
Delta, 2012's top-ranked airline by our analysis, led the industry with the lowest rate of canceled flights—just 0.34% of its schedule, according to FlightStats. The industry's average of canceled flights last year, 1.65%, was almost five times higher than Delta's rate.

Delta worked last year to speed up trips by minimizing taxi times, as well as speeding up loading and unloading, Mr. Lentsch said. "It's fine-tuning. We've made some really targeted investments that give us back a few minutes in operations," he said.

Meanwhile, United and American have occupied the bottom rungs of the industry ladder for the past three years. American canceled nearly 2% of its flights last year. That ranked worst among big airlines in that category.

United had the highest rate among its peers of involuntarily bumping ticketed passengers from flights.

United and American both promised big improvement in 2013 after major problems in prior years. And both saw some, especially in on-time performance. But it wasn't enough to catch rivals, even as those rivals' reliability declined.

United, which saw on-time arrivals perk up to 79.4%, from about 76.5% in 2012, says its improvements are gaining momentum and internal customer-satisfaction surveys are showing big gains since mid-2012, when it was still struggling with its merger with Continental Airlines.

Last year, 43,000 front-line employees took new customer-service training, including techniques borrowed from the hospitality industry. It was the first time United offered recurrent customer-service training to all front-line workers. United also began collecting more specific data on its operation, such as how often jet bridges get hooked up to planes right away after arrival.

"We have had a material improvement but we know we have more to do," said Jeffrey Foland, executive vice president for marketing, technology and strategy.

Vice Chairman James Compton, who oversees United's operations, said the airline also focused more on maintenance, recalibrating the number of spare planes available and the inventory of spare parts at key airports. Improving maintenance helped reduce long delays, he said.

A spokeswoman for American said the carrier is intensely focused on its merger with US Airways, and improving reliability will be a fundamental goal of the new company. "In this next year, you'll see American step forward with a renewed focus on our customers' needs, as well as making safety and reliability part of the fabric of the new company," she said.

Mr. Van de Ven said Southwest's baggage handling, worst among the nine carriers in the scorecard, reflects not only the heavy volume that comes from not charging baggage fees but also the airline's willingness to accept bags late for check-in. To reduce mishandled bags, the airline would have to get more restrictive with customers.

Southwest is upgrading baggage sorters and equipment in the next year or two at its major airports, he said. And the airline can point to its industry-leading low rate of customer complaints filed at the DOT.