From HERO to ZERO: This airline may not be worth traveling with in 2022

Despite the significant setbacks from the COVID-19 pandemic, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) says the airline industry will start to rally as travel restrictions in different countries softened in 2021. 

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) recently released its 14th annual ranking of the biggest US-based airlines by performance. The rankings considered seven criteria: 

• On-time arrivals, 
• Canceled flights, 
• Extreme delays, 
• Tarmac waits longer than two hours, 
• Mishandled baggage, 
• Involuntary bumping of passengers in flights,
• Customer complaints.

Data collected from the U.S Department of Transportation and analysis from aviation data platform masFlight presents this overall ranking:

1. Delta Airlines
2. Alaska Airlines
3. Southwest Airlines
4. United Airlines
5. Allegiant Air
6. and 7. American Airlines and Frontier Airlines (tie)
7. Spirit Airlines
8. JetBlue Airways

From hero to zero? 

Travel + Leisure readers might have chosen JetBlue Airways as the Best U.S. Airline in 2021 largely thanks to its revamped Mint Service, yet The WSJ’s more metrics driven approach tells a different story, dropping the airline into dead last.

JetBlue had the highest number of extreme delays and tarmac waits for at least two hours. It also had the second to the least number of on-time arrivals and second to the highest number of customer complaints. 

JetBlue clearly took the hardest hit from the pandemic because of its pre-pandemic actions. According to a JetBlue spokesman, the airline increased staffing, facilities, and equipment to near pre-pandemic levels the fastest among any other airline. Construction projects at airports where JetBlue has extended service in the last year and a half, including Los Angeles International, LaGuardia, and Newark Liberty International, have hampered the airline's operations. Additionally, bad summer weather and the surge of the Omicron sick calls from airline staff in the winter significantly hindered and delayed flight schedules. 

On the other hand, crowd-favorite and consistent top ranker Delta Airlines landed first place after falling to second place behind Southwest Airlines in 2021. The airline beat the others in five out of the seven categories as it acquired the most on-time arrivals and the fewest cancellations, extreme delays, and customer complaints. 

Delta even outperformed itself with zero involuntary bumps down from only five last year. According to Erik Snell, Senior Vice President for Operations & Customer Center (OCC), the airline takes a measured approach to permit oversales by offering monetary incentives to passengers who would voluntarily change their flight schedules if necessary, to ensure sufficient spaces in the aircraft.

Another improvement worth noting is American Airlines, which placed last in the previous year but tied with Frontier in sixth place this year. WSJ data shows the airline improved in on-time arrivals and had lower rates of extreme delays. Even with a record of cancellations of more than 1,900 flights due to extreme weather and staffing problems in June 2021, American Airlines significantly improved by the end of the year by emphasizing its hiring process and streamlining operations.

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If these recent rankings show us anything, it is the importance of operational efficiency. Airlines like Delta that streamlined their hiring and staffing processes while emphasizing operational excellence outperformed their competitors, many of which released far-too-ambitious schedules, leaving them open to cancellations and operational meltdowns.

As 2022 brings a further return to worldwide travel, airlines would be well served in taking these lessons to heart.