Airlines improved service in 2017
According to annual study at Wichita State University, nine major airlines made strides.
Grouse all you want about cramped airline seats and the increasing fees for everything from snacks to onboard movies, but the longest-running study on airline quality in the U.S. gave the nation’s biggest carriers the highest score in the 27-year history of the study, which is based on other measures.
The Airline Quality Ratings, a study produced annually by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University at Wichita State University since 1991, said the scores for the 12 biggest carriers have been improving over the last three years.
The scores are based on a calculation that factors in criteria such as the rate of lost luggage, the on-time performance of the carriers, the number of passengers booted off of overbooked flights and the number of complaints filed with federal regulators.
The study found that nine airlines — American, ExpressJet, Frontier, Hawaiian, JetBlue, SkyWest, Southwest, Spirit and United — improved scores last year, compared with 2016, with Frontier recording the biggest improvement. Three airlines — Alaska, Delta and Virgin America — all had a drop in their scores, the study said.
“The 10% decrease in the rate of consumer complaints in 2017 suggests that improved performance in important areas to consumers has been noticed,” the study said.
One key criterion that showed a decline was ontime arrivals. As an industry, the percentage of times that airlines arrived on time dropped slightly, from 81.4% in 2016 to 80.2% last year, the study found.
Passenger rights advocates are not putting much stock in the study.
Kate Hanni, a founder of Flyersrights.org, the group that lobbied to impose fines on airlines that strand passengers on delayed flights, said the study does not measure the discomfort suffered by passengers who must sit on cramped seats installed by airlines that want to fit more coach passengers in each cabin.
She also said she suspects that passengers are filing fewer complaints because they don’t expect federal regulators to take action against the airlines.
“I think people are just discouraged,” Hanni said.
Shrinking carry-on
If you routinely fly Alaska Airlines or Virgin America, you may have to buy a smaller carry-on bag.
The two carriers, owned by the Alaska Air Group, are shrinking the maximum size of carry-on bags by 32%, starting in less than two months.
The airlines say the new restrictions are intended to bring the carriers in line with the size limits of competing airlines.
Starting June 4, the dimensions of carry-on bags on Alaska Airlines and Virgin America can be no bigger than 22 inches long, 14 inches high and 9 inches wide. Those are the same maximum dimensions for carry-on bags on Delta, United and American, which set an informal industry standard given their positions as top carriers. There are no federal regulations governing carry-on bags.
Alaska Airlines currently allows carry-on bags up to 24 inches long, 17 inches high and 10 inches wide. Virgin America imposes a maximum outside linear dimension of 51 inches, which equates to the same limit as Alaska Airlines’.
Virgin America was acquired in 2016 by the parent company of Alaska Airlines, the Alaska Air Group.
The merger with Virgin America is taking shape, with all flights and reservations made on Virgin America moving to the Alaska Airlines system by April 25. In addition, all Virgin America terminal gates, websites and mobile apps will be absorbed or converted to those of Alaska Airlines by that date.
Virgin America, a carrier launched by business magnate Richard Branson, will end next year when the logos and paint schemes on the Virgin planes are painted over and the interiors are retrofitted to resemble Alaska Airlines planes.
Sleeping with cargo
Sleeping berths, like those you might find on a train car, may soon be installed on commercial aircraft.
European aircraft builder Airbus and Zodiac Aerospace, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of cabin interiors, have teamed up to develop and market passenger sleeping berths on planes. The catch: The compartments will be in the cargo holds of the planes.
The companies announced the partnership last week during an annual airline interior exposition in Germany. They say the first sleeper berths will be available by 2020 for the A330 planes, the wide-body aircraft that can carry up to 335 passengers.
The sleeper berths will be built into modules that can be swapped out for regular cargo containers that normally fit into the area beneath the passenger cabin, according to a news release issued by the companies.
“This approach to commercial air travel is a step change towards passenger comfort,” Geoff Pinner, head of Airbus cabin and cargo programs, said in a statement. “We have already received very positive feedback from several airlines on our first mock-ups.”
This is not a completely new idea: Airbus and Zodiac have already produced cargo-hold sleeping compartments for pilots and flight attendants on longhaul flights.
More than 1,300 A330 planes are in use on mid- to long-range routes by commercial airlines, including American, Delta, Korean Air and Lufthansa.