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.
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. *
I 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, I sort of doubt if it is necessary for the breathless 'worst year ever' type of reporting I witnessed yesterday and last night.
Anyway - that's how I see it!
Terry Trippler
Founder
www.tripplertravel.com
1300 Nicollet Avenue Suite 3045A
Hyatt Regency Hotel Complex
Minneapolis, MN 55403
612-339-0940
612-247-1110 Cell
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