Eleven of the largest airlines in the United States were ranked according to a combination of factors from punctuality to convenience – Southwest was the worst and Delta the best.
Nine national airlines and two regional airlines have been previously evaluated WalletHub Using recent data from the Department of Transportation on reliability, comfort, cost and safety.
Delta Air Lines was found to be the best airline overall with a score of 66.79 points out of a total of 100. It was also the most reliable, meaning it had the fewest canceled flights, delays, lost baggage, and denied boarding.
Spirit followed with a score of 66.59, and was also the cheapest airline with the lowest cost-per-mile.
JetBlue was the airline with the most amenities. This included good legroom, entertainment options, Wi-Fi and food. Southwest Airlines emerged as the worst rated airline, both overall but also in terms of safety.
WalletHub evaluated nine national and two regional airlines using recent data from the Department of Transportation—turning out Southwest Airlines was the worst airline ever for the second year in a row.
According to WalletHub, Delta is the number one airline in the country for the second year in a row
The ranking was created by allocating a total of one hundred points based on performance in different categories. Those were baggage and departure (50 points), animal-related accidents (5 points), convenience and cost (15 points) and safety (30 points).
Each of these categories has been broken down further. Baggage and departures consist of canceled flights (8 points), delays (18 points), mishandled baggage (9 points) and denied boarding (15 points).
Animal accidents consider the number of animals killed, injured or lost as a proportion of the number of animals that have traveled on the airline in total (5 points).
Some airlines do not allow pets. These are Envoy, Frontier, Jet Blue, Southwest, Spirit and Challengers. They are not registered and therefore not punished.
Convenience and cost consist of leg room (2 points), entertainment options (1 point), Wi-Fi (1 point), food and drink (1 point), and price (10 points).
Safety considered injuries and deaths per flight (26 points) but also took into account the age of the airline’s fleet (4 points).
Ranking airlines from worst to best:
11. Southwest Airlines
Baggage and Departure: 10.7/50
Convenience and cost: 7.42 / 15
Safety: 4.11 / 30
Animal-related incidents: Pets are not allowed 5/5
Southwest was the worst airline considered in the study. Pictured are passengers waiting to check-in for Southwest Airlines flights at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport
Total points: 23.39 / 100
Southwest was the worst considered airline in the study by a certain margin and scored low in almost all categories. It also came last in WalletHub’s ranking last year.
Southwest is the only airline to score zero points in two safety-related categories – both aviation fatalities and injuries. So it has ranked as the worst for safety so far.
In terms of baggage and departures, it ranked slightly better than Frontier, which has more flight delays but fewer cancellations.
Earlier this month, Southwest Airlines planes were grounded for more than an hour due to a technical issue with the carrier’s firewall systems — resulting in more than 1,900 delays and many cancellations.
It said disruptions earlier in the year during the holidays led to the cancellation of more than 16,700 flights.
10. Frontier Airlines
Baggage and departure: 10.66 / 50
Convenience and Cost: 8.21/15
Security: 24/30
Animal-related incidents: Pets are not allowed 5/5
Budget airline Frontier canceled its customer service helpline last year, forcing travelers to contact the company online. Pictured are Frontier Airlines employees at the check-in desks
Total points: 45.13 / 100
Frontier ranked the budget airline much higher than Southwest overall but similarly poorly in categories such as baggage and cost. The main advantage was in the safety category where it scored similar points to all the other airlines on the list.
In November, the Department of Transportation said it forced Frontier to refund passengers $622 million for canceled or delayed flights and fined it $2.2 million for failure to pay it in the appropriate timeframe.
Last year, customers were outraged after it scrapped its customer service helpline, forcing travelers to contact the company online. This meant that customers would not be able to contact the airline for assistance and would instead have to use a chatbot and their social media accounts to make contact.
9. American Airlines
Baggage and departure: 19.09 / 50
Convenience and Cost: 6.42/15
Safety: 21.3 / 30
Animal-related accidents: 0.26/5
Total score: 47.06 / 100
American Airlines is the largest airline in the country by passenger numbers but has a poor score for animal-related accidents. Pictured is an American Airlines jet entering the gate area at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport
American Airlines is the largest airline in the country in terms of the number of passengers it carries each year.
It stood out for having a particularly bad score for animal-related incidents, the lowest of all airlines that allow passengers to travel with pets.
8. Air Envoy
Baggage and departure: 18.05 / 50
Convenience and Cost: 4.5/15
Safety: 27.09 / 30
Animal-related incidents: Pets are not allowed 5/5
Total points: 52.25 / 100
It was the Envoy with the lowest scores of the two regional airlines. It generally operates its own flights and serves a number of flights on behalf of America, which are only ranked above.
Envoy has the lowest score for poorly handled baggage reports of all other airlines.
Both had similar baggage and departure classes overall, but Envoy’s comfort and cost score was significantly lower compared to a number of other airlines in the study.
Envoy, headquartered in Irving, Texas.
In December during the holiday period, a baggage handler working at Montgomery Airport in Alabama was killed after being struck by the engine of a Dallas-bound airliner.
7. JetBlue Airways
Baggage and departure: 20.1 / 50
Convenience and cost: 8.82 / 15
Safety: 23.66 / 30
Animal-related incidents: Pets are not allowed 5/5
Total points: 55.46 / 100
JetBlue had the worst delay score, with a score of zero out of 18. It had the highest percentage of delayed flights on the list.
Flight delays have worsened steadily in the past decade – despite ticket prices soaring and airlines making record profits. The last time delays were close to last year’s highs was in 2014, when 18 percent of flights were delayed.
JetBlue Airways was previously revealed as one of the worst offenders when it comes to flight delays in the past 12 months, with customers being late for 31.6 percent of its flights and an average wait of 57 minutes.
6. Hawaiian Airlines
Baggage and departure: 27.55 / 50
Convenience and cost: 7.81 / 15
Safety: 21.78 / 30
Animal-related accidents: 0/5
Total points: 57.14 / 100
Hawaii had the highest number of animals that died or were injured while being transported. The airline didn’t score particularly high in any one category.
In December, during a Hawaiian Airlines flight from Arizona to Honolulu, 20 people were injured and some lost consciousness after the plane experienced severe turbulence.
5. Alaska Airlines
Baggage and departure: 22.78 / 50
Convenience and Cost: 8.35/15
Safety: 22.91 / 30
Animal-related accidents: 5/5
Alaska Airlines had the highest percentage of outright canceled flights, but it made it up because it denied passengers boarding at a lower rate than some other airlines. In the photo, an Alaska Airlines plane flies over the US Capitol
Total points: 59.03 / 100
Alaska Airlines has the lowest possible score of zero when it comes to canceled flights, with a total of zero out of a possible eight points, meaning it has the highest percentage of canceled flights.
In February, two Alaska Airlines planes scraped their tails on the tarmac at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport during takeoff due to a software glitch that caused pilots to think their planes were 20,000 pounds lighter.
4. United Airlines
Baggage and departure: 32.36 / 50
Convenience and cost: 6.88 / 15
Safety: 20.46 / 30
Animal-related incidents: Pets are not allowed 5/5
Total points: 62.83 / 100
United is one of the largest airlines in the country, but it did not finish out of the top three airlines in the study.
It achieved one of the lowest scores in the airline accidents and accidents category, which measures the proportion of an airline’s accidents to its total flights operated.
3. SkyWest Airlines
Baggage and departure: 29.56 / 50
Convenience and cost: 6.98 / 15
Safety: 22.18 / 30
Animal-related accidents: 5/5
Total points: 63.71 / 100
SkyWest is the second regional airline on the list and operates short-haul flights to America, Delta, Alaska and United.
She scored very highly for declining so few boardings, but did poorly in terms of providing good passenger amenities.
2. Spirit Airlines
Baggage and departure: 27.44 / 50
Convenience and Cost: 8.79/15
Safety: 27.02 / 30
Animal-related incidents: Pets are not allowed 5/5
Total points: 66.57 / 100
Spirit Airlines was the best airline for budget travelers but also received the highest rating for safety across the board, giving one of the highest overall scores of all 11 airlines.
Spirit is currently seeking to merge with JetBlue, which is seventh on the list, despite a Justice Department injunction indicating it would raise airfares and harm consumers.
In March, the Biden administration sued to block the $3.8 billion takeover.
1. Delta Airlines
Baggage and departure: 34.12 / 50
Convenience and Cost: 6.42/15
Safety: 21.26 / 30
Animal-related accidents: 5/5
Total score: 66.79 / 100
And according to WalletHub, Delta is the number one airline in the country for the second year in a row.
However, he may not hold this position for long. Earlier this week, it was reported that Delta was about to put more passengers off flights as it increases the number of flights it sells.
