America’s Most and Least Reliable Airlines, from American to Virgin

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)

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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

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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

galleries/2012/10/03/america-s-most-and-least-reliable-airlines-from-american-to-virgin/delta-least-reliable-airlines_ytimkq

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

galleries/2012/10/03/america-s-most-and-least-reliable-airlines-from-american-to-virgin/alaska-least-reliable-airlines_mwbjka

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

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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

galleries/2012/10/03/america-s-most-and-least-reliable-airlines-from-american-to-virgin/virgin-least-reliable-airlines_fqahtz

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

galleries/2012/10/03/america-s-most-and-least-reliable-airlines-from-american-to-virgin/american-least-reliable-airlines_erud2s

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

galleries/2012/10/03/america-s-most-and-least-reliable-airlines-from-american-to-virgin/frontier-least-reliable-airlines_vgiyxy

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

galleries/2012/10/03/america-s-most-and-least-reliable-airlines-from-american-to-virgin/jetblue-least-reliable-airlines_kpv8nu

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

galleries/2012/10/03/america-s-most-and-least-reliable-airlines-from-american-to-virgin/united-least-reliable-airlines_dvyp7s

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

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.