Big Guys Finish Last in 2010 Airline Rankings - WSJ.com

THE MIDDLE SEATJANUARY 13, 2011
The Big Guys Finish Last in 2010 Airline Rankings
By SCOTT MCCARTNEY

Big was bad when it came to airline service last year. Delta, American, United and its merger partner Continental placed last in the annual Middle Seat customer-service rankings of major domestic carriers in 2010.

Best among major airlines: smaller carriers. Alaska Airlines and AirTran Airways had the highest percentages of on-time flights and generally lower rates of lost bags, cancellations, passengers bumped from oversold flights and complaints filed with the Department of Transportation. Those two airlines were the only two majors to decrease their complaint totals in 2010—the rest shot higher.

Southwest Airlines is flying into many of those big-airline headwinds as it grows. The low-fare carrier used to be an on-time machine, regularly providing flights so punctually that it was a major marketing point for the airline. But Southwest ended 2010 in sixth place among the nation's nine major airlines in on-time arrivals, according to data compiled by FlightStats.com, a flight-tracking service, and the DOT.

As Southwest has pushed into more big-city hubs often plagued by delays, it has increasingly struggled to avoid late flights and resulting problems like misconnected baggage. Southwest ranked No. 6 in baggage handling and seventh in the frequency of involuntarily bumping passengers from its flights.