Chaos. Bedlam. A nightmare. Frustrated fliers spared no superlatives when describing the mess that unfolded in 2022 as travelers returned in full force.
Delta Air Lines’ CEO described 2022 as “the most difficult operational year in our history.” This from the airline that The Wall Street Journal (Jan. 19, 2023) ranked first among nine U.S. carriers in its 15th annual airline scorecard. Alaska Airlines, featured in the Global Company Profile in Chapter 15 of your Heizer/Render/Munson text was a repeat runner-up, followed by Southwest, United, Allegiant, American, Spirit, and Frontier. JetBlue finished last for the second consecutive year.
Airlines are ranked by seven equally weighted metrics covering flight cancellations, on-time arrivals, delays, involuntary bumping, baggage handling and complaints.
The reasons for the industry’s problems are well documented, if little comfort to travelers. Fuller flight schedules to meet a surge in travel demand collided with staffing shortages and training backlogs. Air-traffic control issues multiplied. Extreme weather spread throughout the country. The year was bookended by holiday travel woes, with a messy summer-vacation season and hurricane headwinds in between.
Delta retained its crown by navigating the hurdles better than peers, but was far from perfect. The airline took the top spot in 3 of the 7 categories, down from five in 2021. Its on-time arrival rate of 82% beat all competitors, but was still down from 88% in 2021. The airline that for years has pledged to “cancel cancellations” canceled nearly 31,000 flights, more than three times the number it called off in 2021. Seattle-based Alaska would have edged Delta in this category were it not for the storms that socked the Pacific Northwest in December.
Allegiant Air, the carrier that shuttles vacationers from smaller cities to holiday spots like Las Vegas, Florida and Arizona, was ranked 5th and canceled 4% of its flights, the most of any airline. It also had the lowest on-time arrival rate, at 63%. But the airline was helped by its top showing in baggage handling and involuntary bumping.
JetBlue earned the title no airline wants—worst performing U.S. carrier—because it posted relatively poor numbers in nearly every category. It blames continuing operational issues on its heavy concentration of flights in NYC and the congested surrounding states.
Classroom discussion questions:
- How do your students rank these carriers?
- What would be your strategy if you were Jet Blue’s operations manager?