Analyst defends airline service
Terry Trippler, an airline analyst, put real numbers to the numbers of passengers bumped according to the Airline Quality Report noted yesterday on Tripso.com. The way he sees it, at least based on absolute numbers of bumped passengers and overall complaints, things aren’t so bad.
Trippler notes, “Well the annual Airline Quality Awards for 2006 are out and as usual the anti-airline folks were excited as ever about the decline in service on the nation’s airlines.”
He continues,
“Airline service is going in the wrong direction and has been going in the wrong direction for way too long. However, before some of these folks become too breathless with “worst year ever†type headlines - let’s take a look at the numbers.
According to an article in USA Today …
* Involuntary denied boardings were 1.01 per 10,000 passengers
* And the consumer complaint numbers were 1.36 complaints for every 100,000 passengers.Trippler converted the stats to actual passenger numbers using the three Washington D.C. area airports
Washington Dulles
23 million passengers in 2006 = approx 63,000 passengers per day
* approx 6 ½ passengers were involuntarily bumped per day (entire airport – all airlines)
* about every day and a half – someone complained to the DOT about airline service (entire airport – all airlines)Washington Reagan
18.6 million passengers in 2006 – approx 51,000 passenger per day
* approx 5 passengers were involuntarily bumped per day (entire airport – all airlines)
* about every other day – someone complained to the DOT about airline service (entire airport – all airlines)Baltimore / Washington International
20,500 million passengers in 2006 – approx 56,000 passengers per day
* approx 5 passengers were involuntarily bumped per day (entire airport – all airlines)
* about every other day – someone complained to the DOT about airline service (entire airport – all airlines)Again, while things aren’t going in the right direction, Trippler doubts if it is necessary for the breathless “worst year ever†type of reporting he witnessed yesterday and last night.
After today’s cancellation of 1,000+ American Airlines flights, I wonder whether there will be a bump in the complaint level of the DOT report. Fortunately, for the airlines, and unfortunately for those who track customer complaints, most airline travelers don’t take the time to formally complain. They are too busy figuring how to get to their destination.
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