Performance up in '08; NWA fourth

While 2008 proved to be a tumultuous year for the nation's airlines -- fuel prices gyrated wildly and passenger demand plummeted -- last year also brought the first upturn in airline performance in five years, private researchers said in an industry report released Monday.

Northwest Airlines, Michigan's largest carrier, which operates a major hub out of Detroit Metropolitan Airport in Romulus, ranked No. 4, the highest among the six large network carriers. Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines, with which Northwest merged in October, ranked No. 12.

Delta spokeswoman Susan Elliott said Delta has shown "dramatic improvement" in recent surveys. "While we continue to strive for improved results," she said, "Delta consistently performs well among its peers in other airline rankings, such as our No. 3 position in the J.D. Power survey and continues to be a top performer in what customers care about the most -- flights arriving on time."

Authors of the 2009 Airline Quality Rating study, a joint project of Wichita State and Saint Louis universities, said it was the first time in five years that the industry's overall performance improved, a trend reversal highly attributable to a waning number of air travelers.

"We know the system performs better when it's less stressed by high passenger volume," said Dean Headley, a Wichita State business school professor and co-author of the annual study. "The economy scared away both business and leisure travelers in 2008."

In 2008, U.S. airlines handled 29 million fewer passengers -- just 741 million -- compared with 2007, when a record 770 million travelers took to the skies. The extra crush of passengers, brought on a proliferation of low fares offered by cut-rate carriers, jammed airports and pushed airlines to the brink. Northwest, fresh out of bankruptcy, struggled with on-time performance and cancellations in the late summer, as did other carriers.

Airlines are ranked in the study by combining scores in four categories: on-time performance, rate of passengers being involuntarily bumped off a flight, rate of baggage mishandling and number and type of consumer complaints. Overall, the industry posted a gain in number of on-time flights -- 76 percent of flights were on-time last year compared with just 73 percent in 2007 -- and a decline in the number of mishandled bags, as well as reductions in the number of passengers denied boarding and complaints registered with the federal Department of Transportation.

"... Performance seems to have turned a corner," the researchers wrote in their report.

Northwest, which controls more than three-quarters of flights in and out of Metro Airport, improved in all four categories, while Delta showed significant improvement in only two: involuntary bumping and the rate of mishandled baggage, which was still higher than the industry average.

Hawaiian Airlines ranked as the best carrier in the U.S., while low-fare operations AirTran and JetBlue took the No. 2 and 3 spots. Atlantic Southeast, a regional carrier than operates short-haul flights for Delta, took the bottom No. 17 spot.

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