US airline service quality survey rises. But what’s behind the numbers?

The annual Airline Quality Rating (AQR) report has been released by Wichita State University, an annual assessment that dates back to 1991 and measures airline performance based on a number of statistical measures. The good news is that in all but one of the categories measured, there was improvement, with only Denied Boardings registering a negative index. Other attributes measured include On Time Performance, Mishandled Bags and the generic catch-all Customer Complaints category that deals with a multitude of sins and slights.