Spirit Airlines most improved
Spirit Airlines, which serves both Cleveland Hopkins and Akron-Canton airports, is the nation's most improved carrier, according to a new report. (Chuck Crow/The Plain Dealer)
CLEVELAND, Ohio - Spirit Airlines is the nation's most improved carrier, performing better in four key customer-service areas in 2016 than the year before, according to a new analysis of U.S. carriers.
But there's plenty of room for improvement for Spirit, still ranked among the nation's worst airlines, according to the Airline Quality Rating, an annual assessment of airline performance co-authored by professors at Wichita State University and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
The ultra-low cost carrier, know for low fares, tight seats and extra fees, was among 12 U.S. carriers included in the report, released Monday morning. The airline flies numerous routes from both Cleveland Hopkins and Akron-Canton airports.
"Spirit is, by far, the most improved," said Dean Headley, co-author of the report and an associate professor at Wichita State's Barton School of Business. "But they had so far to go."
Headley attributed Spirit's dramatic improvement, in part, to a change in leadership at the top of the airline - new CEO Robert Fornaro took over at Spirit in January 2016. Changes in corporate culture occurred almost immediately, with a new emphasis on customer service.
In four key areas studied by the report - on-time performance, mishandled bags, involuntarily denied boardings and customer complaints - Spirit improved in all. In the important on-time performance category, for example, Spirit improved from 69 percent of flights on time in 2015 to 74 percent in 2016.
Overall complaints about Spirit - though still the highest in the industry -- were down, too, from 11.73 per 100,000 passengers in 2015, to 6.74 in 2016, as reported by the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Said Spirit spokesman Paul Berry: "Beginning last spring, Spirit initiated a number of programs that have led to major improvements in on-time performance and a 64 percent reduction in complaints year over year. While we're pleased to see such dramatic improvements, we know we can do better and we're committed to keep getting better every day. Today's Spirit is performing much better than last year's Spirit, and next year's Spirit will be even better and we'll still be the low-price leader in the industry."
Despite Spirit's improvement, the airline moved up only one spot in the report's overall rankings - up from 13th in 2015 to 11th in 2016. That's because nine out of 12 airlines included in the evaluation also improved performance in 2016, according to Headley.
Alaska Air was judged the nation's best airline; Frontier Airlines was deemed the worst.
"This is the best year ever in terms of the performance of airlines in the 27 years we've done this report," said Headley. At the same time performance has improved, the average price to fly has decreased, down 9 percent to $344 in 2016, he said.
To see the complete report: airlinequalityrating.com
Airlines ranked (2015 ranking in parentheses)
1. Alaska (5)
2. Delta (3)
3. Virgin American (1)
4. JetBlue (2)
5. Hawaiian (4)
6. Southwest (6)
7. SkyWest (7)
8. United (8)
9. American (10)
10. ExpressJet (9)
11. Spirit (13)
12. Frontier (11)
(Source: Airline Quality Rating, using data from the U.S. Department of Transportation; Envoy Air was not included in the 2016 ranking.)