Airline Quality Rating 2022: The 32nd year reporting airline performance
Citation
Bowen, B. D., & Headley, D. E. Airline Quality Rating 2022. Wichita State University, 2022.-- 24 p
Abstract
The Airline Quality Rating (AQR) was developed and first announced in early 1991 as an
objective method for assessing airline quality on combined multiple performance criteria.
This current report, the Airline Quality Rating 2022, reflects monthly Airline Quality Rating
scores for calendar year 2021. AQR scores for 2022 are based on 15 elements in four major
areas that focus on airline performance aspects important to air travel consumers over the
calendar year of 2021.
The Airline Quality Rating 2022 is a summary of month-by-month quality ratings for U.S.
airlines that are required to report performance by virtue of having at least 0.05% of domestic
scheduled-service passenger revenue during 2021. Using the Airline Quality Rating system
of weighted averages and monthly performance data in the areas of on-time arrivals,
involuntary denied boardings, mishandled baggage, and a combination of 12 customer
complaint categories, the AQR reports airlines’ comparative performance for the calendar
year of 2021. This research monograph contains a summary of the AQR methodology and
detailed data that track comparative performance quality for domestic airline operations for
the 12-month period of 2021 and the industry. Also, comparative Airline Quality Rating data
for 2020 are included, where available, to provide historical perspective regarding
performance quality in the industry.
Description
The Airline Quality Rating Report in a product of academic research from co-authors Dr.
Dean Headley and Dr. Brent Bowen. The research originated at the W. Frank Barton School
of Business, Wichita State University in Wichita, Kansas.
Dr. Bowen and Dr. Headley’s research on the development of the national Airline
Quality Rating (AQR) is viewed by more than 75 million people each year and is annually
featured by national news outlets such as ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, NBC’s Today
Show, C-SPAN, USA Today, The Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal, Aviation Week
and Space Technology, the network evening news shows and in numerous other national
and international print and electronic media. Bowen and Headley have served as invited
expert witnesses before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Government
Operations and as invited speakers and panelists for such groups as the National Academy
of Sciences/Transportation Research Board, Department of Transportation, and other
congressional and executive panels.
Their body of research has been recognized with awards from the American
Marketing Association, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the Travel
and Transportation Research Association and others.