Passion 1 - Airline Rating

Which Airline is Rated "Worst"?

If you’re a frequent business traveler, you’re also a frequently annoyed at mismanaged baggage, cancelled flights, and delays. To see which airline takes the trophy for the most complaints, here is the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Air Travel Consumer Report. The worst performing airline, based on number of complaints, is U.S. Airways, which received a total of 5 complaints per 100,000 fliers [PDF].

The most frequently reported complaint in the data is, not surprisingly, cancelled or delayed flights, followed by baggage mismanagement (U.S. Airways had 10 reported baggage issues per 1,000 customers), and mistakes made in reservations & ticketing.

Forbes selected Atlantic Southeast Airlines as their overall “worst,” using a different methodology. U.S. Airways, however, has five times as many boarding passengers, and more complaints per 100,000 customers.

Be sure to keep an iron grip on those bags of yours! The burning question: Which airport has the fattest chance your luggage will be pilfered? The answer: Los Angeles International (LAX). A 2004 report by the Transportation Security Administration reported 1,458 luggage theft claims at LAX. Other exemplars in the top three include Chicago O’Hare (963) and Seattle-Tacoma (904).

If you’re going international, risk assessment experts give parts of Africa and Latin America the highest risk of stolen items. In some locales, even the security personnel are part of the criminal enterprise. Tobias Friedl, manager for iJET Intelligent Risk Systems told the New York Times about a particular incident at Guatemala City’s airport where an armored car en-route was stolen. The take? Eight million, cash.

(condensed from Jonathan Haeber)