A new ranking of the best airlines in the world is notable for what's lacking in its top 10: any airlines from the U.S., which happens to be the world leader in air passengers serviced per year.
The sixth annual survey by AirHelp, a company that serves as an advocate for air travelers who face delays and cancelations, looked at 72 international airlines from across the globe. The criteria for the ranking was heavily weighted toward passenger friendliness, with scores tied to only four factors: on-time performance, service quality, how each airline handled customer complaints and overall public reviews of the airlines on social media. (The study also ranked the world's airports.)
In the final analysis, the three U.S. airlines studied fell far short of being world leaders, with American Airlines finishing at 23, United Airlines at 37 and Delta Air Lines at 47. Delta, for example, only scored a 6.5 out of 10 for its overall quality of service, while American and United were even worse in that category, with a 6.3 and 6.0, respectively. Delta had the best on-time performance of the three, with a score of 8.1, while American led with a score of 9.5 in customer claims processing.
The study showed that U.S. airlines are lagging behind their counterparts in Europe, Asia and the Middle East, AirHelp said.
“It is clear the U.S. is in need of significant improvement, with overbooked flights and cancellations making national headlines month after month, and the consistent mistreatment of U.S. consumers,” AirHelp CEO Henrik Zillmer said in a prepared statement.
These were the airlines that topped the list of top airlines, in ascending order:
10. Virgin Atlantic (U.K.)
The airline was best at timely service, with an on-time performance score of 8.2.
