Worst US Airline: Why Did United Come In Last?

In an annual Airline Quality Rating published by Purdue and Wichita State universities on Monday, United Airlines ranked as the worst of the 14 leading U.S. carriers. United Airline became the world's largest airline -- according to number of scheduled passenger miles flown and number of destinations offered -- after it merged with Continental in 2010. Virgin Airlines, a relatively small company (United has about 18 times more passengers and flies 702 planes to Virgin's 52) was ranked the best. This is the first year Virgin America, created in 2007, has been large enough to be included in the rankings. As an industry, the study said, the 14 major carriers were about as good in 2012 as in 2011, the best year out of any during the 23 years in which the universities have conducted the study. The Chicago Tribune reported that, industry-wide, carriers improved in two of four areas: on-time performance and baggage handling. However, involuntary denied boardings and customer complaints rose in 2012.

United Airlines has had its name arise in a number of public relations flaps recently. Only last week, a flight from Denver to Baltimore was diverted to Chicago for what they announced on-board as security reasons. It turned out to be because a family of passengers had complained repeatedly about the in-flight movie. In Chicago the family was escorted off the plane, even though interactions between the family and flight crew were said to have remained collegial throughout. In February, a frequent flyer and flight blogger Matthew Klint was escorted off his flight bound for Istanbul after he snapped a photo of the empty seat next to him in an attempt to document recent structural changes in the plane. And perhaps most memorably, when United Airlines listed first-class tickets to Hong Kong for $43 and 4 frequent flyer miles and people subsequently rushed to take advantage of the mistake, the airline refused to honor them, prompting a flood of complaints with the Department of Transportation.

Across the industry, the rate of complaints per 100,000 passengers rose to 1.43 last year from 1.19 in 2011, despite the apparent stability in quality of service. In an interview with the AP, Dean Headley, a business professor at Wichita State and one of the study's co-authors, said it wasn't surprising, pointing to carriers' practice of continually shrinking the size of seats in order to fit more people into planes.

"The way airlines have taken 130-seat airplanes and expanded them to 150 seats to squeeze out more revenue, I think, is finally catching up with them," he said.