America’s Most and Least Reliable Airlines, from American to Virgin
The Daily Beast crunches the numbers to find America's most and least reliable airlines.
Getty Images (3); Landov (bottom left)
The recent trials of American Airlines, the nation’s third largest airline, got us thinking about a few key things an airline can do to score high on reliability: avoid exorbitant extra fees, have its planes show up safely and on time, and make sure that customers are generally satisfied.
To find the most and least reliable major airlines in America, The Daily Beast used data covering the most recent 12-month period available for each category, sourced from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, the National Transportation Safety Board, and the Federal Aviation Administration. We looked at complaints per 100,000 passengers, baggage fees per passenger, reservation cancellation or change fees per passenger, incidents and accidents per 100,000 passengers, and on-time departure and arrival performance. Each category was weighted equally except the fees categories, which were each half-weighted. The airlines are ranked from most to least reliable.
Getty Images (3); Landov (bottom left)
Total Passengers, year ending June 2012: 8,291,000
Complaints/100,000 passengers, year ending July 2012: .74
Baggage fees/passenger, year ending June 2012: $7.41
Cancellation and change fees/passenger, year ending June 2012: $2.09
Incidents and accidents/100,000 passengers, year ending Oct. 2012: .0121
2012 On-time departures, year ending July 2012: 95 percent
2012 On-time arrivals, year ending July 2012: 93 percent
Karen Bleier, AFP / Getty Images
Total Passengers: 116,983,000
Complaints/100,000 passengers: .29
Baggage fees/passenger: $.64
Cancellation and change fees/passenger: $.10
Incidents and accidents/100,000 passengers: .0111
2012 On-time departures: 82 percent
2012 On-time arrivals: 85 percent
Karen Bleier, AFP / Getty Images
Total Passengers: 93,850,000
Complaints/100,000 passengers: 1.33
Baggage fees/passenger: $9.26
Cancellation and change fees/passenger: $8.18
Incidents and accidents/100,000 passengers: .0139
2012 On-time departures: 88 percent
2012 On-time arrivals: 87 percent
Chris O'Meara / AP Photo
Total Passengers: 16,363,000
Complaints/100,000 passengers: .99
Baggage fees/passenger: $9.30
Cancellation and change fees/passenger: $1.13
Incidents and accidents/100,000 passengers: 0
2012 On-time departures: 90 percent
2012 On-time arrivals: 88 percent
Julie Jacobson / AP Photo
Total Passengers: 47,026,000
Complaints/100,000 passengers: 2.57
Baggage fees/passenger: $10.87
Cancellation and change fees/passenger: $6.04
Incidents and accidents/100,000 passengers: .0085
2012 On-time departures: 89 percent
2012 On-time arrivals: 85 percent
Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images
Total Passengers: 5,578,000
Complaints/100,000 passengers*: 1.40
Baggage fees/passenger: $9.30
Cancellation and change fees/passenger: $4.37
Incidents and accidents/100,000 passengers: 0
2012 On-time departures: 84 percent
2012 On-time arrivals: 84 percent
*Consumer complaint counts by month for Virgin were unavailable before November 2011. There were 20 complaints from January to September 2011, an average of 2.2 per month. This average was used to estimate the total complaints from July 2011 to July 2012.
Stephen Chernin / Getty Images
Total Passengers: 65,771,000
Complaints/100,000 passengers: 2.08
Baggage fees/passenger: $8.95
Cancellation and change fees/passenger: $7.70
Incidents and accidents/100,000 passengers: .0091
2012 On-time departures: 82 percent
2012 On-time arrivals: 81 percent
Joe Raedle / Getty Images
Total Passengers: 10,427,000
Complaints/100,000 passengers: 1.06
Baggage fees/passenger: $7.05
Cancellation and change fees/passenger: $1.68
Incidents and accidents/100,000 passengers: 0
2012 On-time departures: 82 percent
2012 On-time arrivals: 80 percent
David Zalubowski / AP Photo
Total Passengers: 24,093,000
Complaints/100,000 passengers: 1.16
Baggage fees/passenger: $2.83
Cancellation and change fees/passenger: $5.45
Incidents and accidents/100,000 passengers: 0
2012 On-time departures: 81 percent
2012 On-time arrivals: 79 percent
Allison Joyce / Getty Images
Total Passengers: 53,687,000
Complaints/100,000 passengers: 6.24
Baggage fees/passenger: $9.14
Cancellation and change fees/passenger: $9.21
Incidents and accidents/100,000 passengers: .0093
2012 On-time departures: 78 percent
2012 On-time arrivals: 78 percent
George Rose / Getty Images
Total Passengers: 7,913,000
Complaints/100,000 passengers: 11.70
Baggage fees/passenger: $19.38
Cancellation and change fees/passenger: $3.43
Incidents and accidents/100,000 passengers: 0
2012 On-time departures: N/A
2012 On-time arrivals: N/A
Marsha Halper, Miami Herald / MCT / Landov
Register below to read this article for free or subscribe
to unlock unlimited access to The Daily Beast.
Monthly
$1
First month then $5.99/month
Annual
$35
First year then $59.99/year
Premium
$79
First year then $119.99/year
*Substack access provided by the next business day, using your subscription email. Choosing the Premium plan constitutes your permission to share your subscription email with Substack and your agreement to Substack’s Privacy Policy.
Already have an account? Sign In
Looks like you already have a subscription!
You're all set!
Thanks for subscribing.