According to the Wall Street Journal’s Middle Seat blog, Delta was the best performing major US airline in 2012.
The blog’s now annual report uses data relating to a number of criteria – late flights, cancelled flights, extreme delays, bumped passengers and lost bags – from the Department of Transport (DOT) and Flightstats to rank airline operational performance.
Scott McCartney, author of the Middle Seat, noted how Delta’s position at the top of the rankings “capped a two-year turnaround” – the airline had been the worst performing in the 2010 report.
While Delta was praised for reducing cancellations by managing and locating its aircraft more efficiently and investing in a new baggage system at its Atlanta hub, McCartney was scathing in his assessment of two of the U.S.’ other big carriers. In his eyes, 2012 was a “miserable” year for United and American, the bottom two airlines among the seven ranked.
Overall rank
1) Delta
2) Alaska
3) US Airways
4) Southwest
5) jetBlue
6) American
7) United
The data as a whole revealed improvement in the quality of service offered on domestic flights from that of 2011.
According to Middle Seat calculations, 79 per cent of flights on all U.S. passenger airlines arrived within 15 minutes of scheduled time (an improvement of 3 per cent on the previous year) and only 1.4 per cent of flights were cancelled (a reduction from 2.1 per cent in 2011).
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(Image: Delta)
