WASHINGTON — Last year was a rough one to be an airline passenger.
In addition to the cramped seats, there were storms, power outages, various runway construction projects at major airports and oh yeah, a United passenger was physically dragged out of his seat and off a plane so an airline employee could take his seat.
On the plus side, in 2017 it was a bit easier to get free food on some flights.
In another major change for passengers, a new airline was crowned leader in the sky by The Wall Street Journal’s Scott McCartney.
Delta had the best overall performance in 2017, according to McCartney’s Middle Seat Score Card, but even Delta didn’t escape the year totally unscathed.
“Delta had some big problems, they had a huge meltdown at spring break last year, had a problem in December when the Atlanta airport lost power,” McCartney said on WTOP. “But overall, the airline ran really well. Especially on days when they weren’t having problems. They improved their on-time percentage overall and generally had a pretty good year.”
Delta came in first with on-time arrivals in 2017. They also ended Alaska Airlines’ four-year reign as the best airline.
“Alaska had a tough year,” McCartney said. “Some of it was their own making, some of it was from storms and problems on the West Coast and also their merger with Virgin America.”
Perhaps the biggest surprise of 2017 was United Airlines coming in fourth place.
“United has been on a push for the last couple of years to really improve the operation,” McCarthy said. “Some of the changes they made, some of the investments they made really did start to take hold.”
United managed to move up one spot from 2016, which is impressive when you consider the fallout they had to deal with after they dragged a doctor off a plane in April.
“I think the April dragging of Dr. Dow off the plane airplane actually helped them because they did make changes,” McCarthy said. “They really reduced overbooking on 50-seat regional jets, they increased the amount of compensation they’d offer people to voluntarily give up seats instead of forcing people off seats. So they actually improved their overbook standings, but they’re behind in customer complaints.”
JetBlue wound up coming in last place this year, down three spots from 2016.
McCarthy said a part of their problem though could be attributed to weather and runway construction in Boston and New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, their two major hubs.
JetBlue also played a big role in hurricane relief in the Caribbean.
“It’s interesting, one thing that they may have hurt them was actually a good thing,” McCarthy said. “They ran 450 relief flights into Puerto Rico and the Caribbean, but taking all those planes out of service probably hurt their regular schedule.”
But McCarthy said weather doesn’t entirely get JetBlue off the hook.
“They had plenty of problems of their own making,” he said. “They put together a group inside the airline a couple of months ago to really start fixing things.”
