Delta Air Lines Inc. DAL ranked first and JetBlue Airways JBLU ranked last in the Wall Street Journal's14th annual ranking of the top U.S. airlines.
What Happened: In looking back at the airline industry’s performance for 2021, the Journal culled the nation’s nine largest airlines and ranked them on seven key operational aspects: on-time arrivals, canceled flights, extreme delays, two-hour tarmac delays, mishandled baggage, involuntary bumping and complaints.
The overall score ranking among the airlines went as follows:
- 1. Delta
- 2. Alaska Air Group ALK
- 3. Southwest Airlines Co. LUV
- 4. United Airlines Holdings UAL
- 5. Allegiant Travel Co. ALGT
- 6. American Airlines Group. Inc. AAL
- 7. Frontier Group Holdings Inc. ULCC
- 8. Spirit Airlines Inc. SAVE
- 9. JetBlue
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Why It Happened: Delta had the highest overall score thanks to finishing first in five of the categories — the carrier ranked third for two-hour tarmac delays and fourth for mishandled baggage.
In comparison, JetBlue ranked last in extreme delays and two-hour tarmac delays and second-to-last for on-time arrivals and complaints.
Admittedly, 2021 was a challenging year for the airline industry, especially as the pandemic waxed and waned over the course of the year, impacting both staffing and passenger volume.
Still, the new data analysis determined that Delta canceled only 0.6% of its scheduled departures last year, including flights conducted by its regional partners, compared to its 0.7% cancelation rate in pre-pandemic 2019, while 87.9% of its flights arrived within 14 minutes of their scheduled landing.
At the other end of the spectrum, JetBlue’s on-time arrival percentage was 69.9% although to its credit, only 1.7% of its flights were canceled last year.
An airline spokesperson reported that it experienced a high level of omicron-related sick calls over the holiday season, although staffing is now at its highest levels since the start of the pandemic and more employees are being hired ahead of the summer travel season.
Photo: Gerhard G./Pixabay
© 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
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