Came out today. My quick take is the dramatic improvement is because we were so far down to start.
"United Airlines (UA) On-time arrival performance improved from 77.4% in 2012 to 79.3% in 2013. Their mishandled baggage rate decreased from 3.87 per 1,000 passengers in 2012 to 3.47 in 2013. Performance regarding involuntary denied boardings of 1.83 per 10,000 passengers in 2012 improved to 1.17 in 2013. A lower customer complaint rate of 2.14 in 2013 compared to 4.24 per 100,000 passengers in 2012 combined with improvements in all other performance areas to move United’s 2013 AQR score to -1.43 from -2.18 in 2012.
United was the only airline to show improvement in all four areas rated in 2013. United also had the most improvement in AQR score of all airlines rated for 2013."
http://commons.erau.edu/cgi/viewcont...0&context=aqrr
We went from 14th in 2012 to 12th in 2013. However being in 12th is still verifiably bad.
Delta 4th
US Airways 7th
American 9th
United 12th
PS, from 2005 through 2009 DAL was 12, 12, 10, 12, and 15, so maybe we really are "where Delta was at this point in their merger" and there's hope we can get out of the basement--if we survive.