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After over a decade of cost cutting, US airlines are turning their attention to issues of quality. This study examined the service quality of 26 US airlines for the period 1987‐1996 using data from the Department of Transportation’s Air Travel Consumer Report. The results indicate that there has been improvement in the service quality of the industry overall, although most of it occurred during the early part of this study. Further, there are significant differences between the service quality of major and regional airlines. Regional airlines performed much worse on all measures of service quality.

The public perception is that service quality among US airlines has declined significantly since deregulation, however, there is debate among experts on the effect of deregulation on safety quality. While the experts debate, the public is left with few guidelines on the safety quality of the carriers that they fly. This study examined both the service and safety quality of the major US airlines. We were interested in the interrelationship between these two areas of overall quality since consumers are generally better able to judge the service quality of airlines. The results indicate that safety quality as a whole and for individual airlines is consistently higher than service quality levels. With the exception of one year during the study, the service level of the major carrier was not significantly related to its level of safety quality, making service quality a poor indicator of safety quality for this group of carriers.

This paper aims to review the conceptual background for service quality as applied to the airline industry and use data from the Air Travel Consumer Report to examine airline quality performance on such key indicators as on‐time arrival, customer complaints, denied boarding, and mishandled baggage to determine the trend in airline service performance over the past two decades.

Data collected for this study included customer complaints on flight problems, ticketing, refunds, fares, customer service, advertising, and other problems, overall carrier on‐time performance, involuntary denied boardings, and mishandled baggage. Total yearly departures by carrier were obtained from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics and used to normalize the service data. Service quality rates were calculated for the industry overall and by individual carrier. The total quality rate represents the sum of the following data: the percentage of late flights, total number of consumer complaints, total number of involuntary denied boardings, and total number of mishandled baggage reports divided by total yearly departures for a particular airline. In a real sense, this rate is a measure of disquality and can be interpreted as the number of quality problems per departure.

The data show that during periods of retrenchment when airlines are reducing flight schedules due to economic downturns the level of on‐time arrival tends to improve while customer complaints, denied boardings, and mishandled baggage decline. Part of the explanation for the changes is the lack of airport and air traffic capacity to handle periods of higher traffic volume.

As a critical component of the transportation system, the ability of the airline industry to provide reliable, timely service is important. Understanding the factors that contribute to service problems can help guide airline decisions about process and government decisions about infrastructure needs.

The purpose of this paper is to examine consumer perceptions of airline quality indicators and compare them to actual data reported by the Department of Transportation, in the USA and the Association of European Airlines (AEA) in the EU. The objective is to determine whether there is a discrepancy between reported performance metrics of service quality and consumer perception.

This paper compares actual reported data on service quality with results of an exploratory questionnaire on the perceived frequency of service failures in three key areas of airline service quality; on time flight arrivals, baggage reports and flight cancellations. Similarities and differences both within and between the USA and EU markets are discussed.

Preliminary findings indicate that actual consumer perceptions of airline performance on key areas of airline service quality are in fact far worse than the data reported in the US Air Travel Consumer Report or AEA Consumer Report. Consumer perceptions fail to come close to many of the service standards the industry is actually reaching. The only exception to this can be seen in the EU where the perceived and actual scores are virtually the same for on time arrivals. It's also interesting to note that the EU perception scores are generally higher than those of the US sample, indicating a marginally more positive disposition towards the industry.

This paper represents a exploratory attempt to integrate the two dominant approaches to airline service quality –perceptual survey and reported secondary data – in an effort to understand the challenge facing international airlines. It also examines the perceptual and performance differences across key Western cultures.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the changing face of airline quality by analyzing the reported service and safety data for the traditional and low cost carriers.

Data were gathered from Department of Transportation records on service and safety quality from 1996‐2004. A safety rate was calculated for each carrier by adding accidents, incidents, near mid‐air collisions, and pilot deviations and dividing the total number by yearly departures. The service rate was calculated by adding all complaint categories and dividing by yearly departures. Averages and confidence intervals were calculated. Analysis of variance was performed on group means.

The findings of this study indicate that the low cost carrier group examined here has closed the gap on its traditional rivals in the area of safety quality, posting safety rates that are not statistically different from the traditional carriers over the period of this study. On the other hand, it has not as a group yet addressed the problem of basic service quality, posting a statistically lower level of quality (as measured by consumer complaints).

The study did not specifically examine airline amenities such as seat pitch, schedule, meals, or in‐flight entertainment.

Low cost airlines appear well placed to continue taking market share away from their traditional rivals who continue to struggle with high costs.

This paper is the first to examine the changing dynamics between traditional and low cost carriers following September 11.

This paper addresses efforts to design a quantitative index of characteristics and factors that comprise quality in airport facilities and operations from the perspective of all airport service customers including airlines, airport tenants, airport service operators, and consumers of airline and air cargo operations. The results of an initial survey of airport directors and consultants have identified 12 broad factors that, in their view, most affect the quality of airport operations. These factors include parking, capacity, ground transportation, shopping and restaurant services, and waiting area considerations.

Although the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001 can be blamed for a number of problems currently plaguing the US airline industry, their effect on the service and safety quality of post‐9/11 airlines is mixed. This study places current industry quality in historical context by examining trends in both areas beginning in 1987. The findings indicate that the service quality improved among major US carriers for the period 1987‐1993 but began to deteriorate after this date, although it did not return to 1987 levels. Service quality again improves in 2001 and reaches its best level ever in 2002 as post‐9/11 changes appear to have improved on‐time performance, reduced overbooking, and lowered customer complaints. Two factors identified as important in service and safety quality, maintenance spending and load factor, were also explored. Results indicate that both service and safety quality improve as the level of maintenance spending increases.

The article aims to assess the long term future of the airline industry through analyzing data on service and safety for traditional and low‐cost airlines.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

The article finds that low cost carriers can now boast the same safety levels as the traditional more expensive ones, but that they still receive considerably more complaints.

The authors predict that low cost carriers will continue to increase their market share, and offer suggestions as to how they may ensure they achieve this.

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