Airlines improve for 1st time in 5 years

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Airline performance improved in 2008 for the first time in five years, according to an annual airline quality report released Monday.

The survey, conducted by two veteran industry experts, ranks the 17 biggest U.S. airlines based on baggage handling, on-time arrivals, denied boardings and customer complaints.

After a record-low industry rating in 2007, all 17 airlines improved their performance in 2008, according to the Airline Quality Rating (AQR) report.

The overall airline industry improved in all four major elements - "a rare occurrence," the report said.

The 19th annual report is co-authored by researchers Brent Bowen, an aviation expert from St. Louis University, and Dean Headley, a business analyst from Wichita State University.

Data came from U.S. Department of Transportation reports and opinion surveys of more than 5,000 frequent travelers on the report's criteria.

Each airline received an overall rating based on the four criteria, and the highest ratings were awarded to Hawaiian, AirTran and Jet Blue (JBLU).

The three lowest were Comair, American Eagle and Atlantic Southeast. Representatives from Comair and American Eagle weren't available for comment.

Kate Modolo, spokeswoman for Atlantic Southeast, said the company is not happy with its bottom ranking but has implemented several improvement measures recently.

"The report doesn't tell the full story of our turnaround," Modolo said. "We jumped from 19th to 11th in on-time arrival, and our customer complaints numbers were the top in May and October."

The report noted that airlines made "concerted efforts" to improve this year, but warned passengers to "take the good news with a grain of salt" because the flailing economy weakened demand for flights.

"We know the system performs better when it's less stressed by high passenger volume," Headley said in a press release.

The report followed a similar pattern after 9/11, and it remains to be seen whether the airlines will continue to improve performance as the economy recovers, Bowen said in the release.

The AQR report named the best and worst airlines based on the four main criteria of baggage handling, on-time arrivals, denied boardings and customer complaints.

AirTran had the best baggage handling rate, of 2.87 mishandled bags per 1,000 passengers. American Eagle was worst at 9.89. The industry average was 5.19.

Hawaiian had the best on-time performance in 2008 at 90%, while American Airlines had the worst at 69.8%. The industry average was 76%.

Jet Blue had the lowest involuntary denied boarding rate at 0.01 per 10,000 passengers. Atlantic Southeast's was highest at 3.89, and the industry average was 1.10.

Southwest Airlines had the lowest consumer complaint rate at 0.25 per 100,000 passengers. US Airways had the highest at 2.01, and the average was 1.15.