DL- the symbol for quality among large US airlines

[spectator]

The oft-dreaded airline quality report is out for 2013 based on 2012 data. The report is a statistical analysis composed largely of DOT data that two professors have compiled based on their own formula which ranks the importance of each of the factors that go into a statistical view of quality, including on-time, baggage handling, and denied boardings.

Legacy nationwide airlines usually do not fare well in the report since the authors make no distinction between the complex operations that AA, DL, UA, and US (remaining legacies) have compared to low fare carriers, which frequently have much higher percentages of local instead of connecting traffic.

The highest performers in the report have historically been a rotation of Virgin America (this year's best), JetBlue, Alaska, Southwest, AirTran, and Hawaiian.

In the latest report, DL ended up in 4th place, the highest level a nationwide legacy has had in the report in many years.

DL's rating in the report was almost twice the national average for US airlines at -.58. US was at -.87. AA was statistically "average" while UA was almost twice as bad as average. DL's ranking was higher than AS, HA, and F9 as well as the regional carriers who historically perform at the bottom of the list.

Could it be that DL's strong operational performance is what is driving its strong financials and resulting in passengers moving to DL from other carriers?

the report can be found here
http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1024&context=aqrr

 

[Glenn Quagmire]

"Delta Air Lines (DL) On-time percentage for 2012 shows an improvement over 2011 (82.3% in 2011 and 86.5% in 2012). Their rate of mishandled baggage (2.66 in 2011 improved to 2.10 in 2012) was better than the industry average of 3.07 mishandled bags per 1,000 passengers. A increase in denied boardings (2011 rate of 0.31 per 10,000 passengers compared to 0.51 for 2012) and a reduced rate of customer complaints (1.23 in 2011 compared to 0.73 in 2012) combined to move Delta’s AQR score to -0.58 in 2012 from -0.80 in 2011. With gains in three of four criteria, Delta’s overall AQR score improved by the third biggest margin of the airlines rated."


Spectator said:

"The oft-dreaded airline quality report is out for 2013 based on 2012 data. The report is a statistical analysis composed largely of DOT data that two professors have compiled based on their own formula which ranks the importance of each of the factors that go into a statistical view of quality, including on-time, baggage handling, and denied boardings."

They have been using the same formula for 23 years.

Feel free to contact the Professors and challenge their methodology.

Or even better, start your own report and come back later. Maybe you and our other crack analyst on this board could team up and produce a competing "unbiased" report.

LOL!

 

[spectator]

Thanks for your responses via cut and paste but you missed the point on several levels. Sigh

1. While they provide some measure of “quality” the entire set of DOT statistics are skewed AGAINST network airlines and in favor of low fare carriers who tend to run simpler networks with a higher percentage of point to point traffic and thus fewer opportunities for something to go wrong from a consumer perspective.
2. The “researchers” came up with their own formula for what defines airline quality using a statistical model which is really their concept of how to weigh the DOT measurements. Yet, the only factor that really only affects EVERY passenger is the on-time ranking. Oversales, mishandled baggage, and consumer complaints affect a VERY small subset of passengers since the ratio for each of these latter three is measured in the incidents per thousands or tens of thousands of passengers – or less. The media will never tell you that out of 49 million people who flew US airlines in January 2013, only 724 filed a complaint with the US DOT or that less than 4 passengers out of 1000 on all US airlines did not receive their bag on the flight that they traveled; in fact, a whole lot of even that number received their bag within 24 hours and it was delivered to their house or hotel. Statistics only tell you once side of a picture. I’m not trying to create a new formula but am simply noting that the perspective of a couple academics about the definition of quality is no more the final word than it is possible to define whether someone has a positive buying experience with any other product.
3. Yet, in the midst of all the limitations of data and statistics noted above and the inaccurate picture they provide, even though it has been consistently so, DL has managed to move up in their ratings and obtain a position which no other network airline has obtained. Note also the quirk in their system that they wipe out data from predecessor companies when airlines merge so saying they have been doing the report for many years means very little since every airline has merged or will merge.
4. Finally, the primary point, regardless of the data perspective is that there does very much seem to be a correlation between operational reliability and profitability. Most of the low fare carriers have stronger brand preference than legacy carriers as measured by this and other tops of rankings. Further, while DL is the highest ranked, US is statistically above AA and UA which both had significant operational issues in 2012 while US ran a pretty good operation and reported better financial results than AA or UA. Thus, if there is a key theme, it is that passengers want reliable transportation with as few hassles as possible and companies that can deliver that, even in the midst of operational challenges which are part and parcel of air travel, succeed better than other carriers whose operation runs at a lower level of operational quality.

 

[topDawg]

The oft-dreaded airline quality report is out for 2013 based on 2012 data. The report is a statistical analysis composed largely of DOT data that two professors have compiled based on their own formula which ranks the importance of each of the factors that go into a statistical view of quality, including on-time, baggage handling, and denied boardings.

Legacy nationwide airlines usually do not fare well in the report since the authors make no distinction between the complex operations that AA, DL, UA, and US (remaining legacies) have compared to low fare carriers, which frequently have much higher percentages of local instead of connecting traffic.

The highest performers in the report have historically been a rotation of Virgin America (this year's best), JetBlue, Alaska, Southwest, AirTran, and Hawaiian.

In the latest report, DL ended up in 4th place, the highest level a nationwide legacy has had in the report in many years.

DL's rating in the report was almost twice the national average for US airlines at -.58. US was at -.87. AA was statistically "average" while UA was almost twice as bad as average. DL's ranking was higher than AS, HA, and F9 as well as the regional carriers who historically perform at the bottom of the list.

Could it be that DL's strong operational performance is what is driving its strong financials and resulting in passengers moving to DL from other carriers?

the report can be found here
http://docs.lib.purd...24&context=aqrr

Of course. Its also a key reason why things like TechOps bring in such money. We get an airplane in and we get it done, on time, at cost.

Next step will be updating and streamlining the domestic product.

 

[spectator]

There is no doubt that DL Tech Ops does what they do well and they do it cost effectively.
But Delta Air Lines consists of many groups of people also doing their part to make the company profitable and run well.