Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 8, 1992 TAG: 9203060485
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Southwest Airlines nudged past two industry giants, Delta and United, for second place in airline quality as rated by the Wichita State University National Institute for Aviation Research.
Trans World Airlines, which recently sought the protection of the federal bankruptcy laws, was rated in last place.
Using a variety of government and publicly available data, the institute compiled the ratings based on many factors, including on-time performance, accidents, customer service, the age of each airline's fleet, lost and mishandled baggage, overbookings and financial stability.
"Being on time, not losing bags, having a fair pricing system," all of those things play a part," said Dean Headly, who helped produce the study.
Brent Bowen, the organizer of the study, said all airlines showed improvement over previous years.
But he said some are clearly doing better than others in terms of the quality they offer.
The institute's quality ratings of the nine major U.S. airlines put American first followed by Southwest, Delta, United, USAir, Northwest, Continental, America West and TWA.
Continental and America West also have sought protection from creditors under the federal bankruptcy laws.
The institute defined a major airline as having earnings of at least $1 billion a year.
Don Fleming, TWA's public relation's director, said that the airline was hit especially hard in the first half of 1991 by the effects of the recession and the Persian Gulf War.
Stringent security arrangements made necessary by the war delayed many international flights and caused a ripple of delays on TWA flights throughout the United States, he said.
"We had a tremendous swell of passenger problems that eventually became complaints," he said.
But Fleming said the airline has made many "painful changes," restructured its operations and that improvements were evident in the last half of the year.
"We finished up the year in pretty good shape and that's continuing in 1992," he said.
The aviation institute compiled its ratings from data made available by the Federal Aviation Administration, the Department of Transportation and the National Transportation Safety Board.
"Our basic intent is the development of a rating system that can be used as a point of comparison by consumers and industry watchers alike in evaluating the comparative quality of the major domestic airlines," Bowen said.
by CNB