A recent WalletHub study ranked Delta Air Lines the best of all U.S. airlines. The study reviewed data associated with national and regional U.S. airlines.
The WalletHub 2022 Best Airlines report found that Delta earned the highest overall score after being the runner-up three years in a row.
“Delta lowered its share of canceled flights, had fewer consumer complaints and aviation incidents, and had no animal incidents,” said Jill Gonzalez, an analyst at WalletHub. “It also scored points for Wi-Fi availability.”
The score was determined based on baggage, departures, complaints, animal incidents, in-flight comfort, cost, and safety.
Although Alaska Airlines was displaced out of the top spot by Delta Air Lines, it earned the title of the safest airline this year.
“Alaska Airlines had no fatalities reported due to aircraft-related issues and had less than 15 injuries sustained by passengers and/or aircraft personnel that required medical care,” Gonzalez told The Dallas Express. “The airline’s average fleet age is under ten years.”
According to Gonzalez, cancellations across all airlines have been on the rise in the last year due to the pandemic.
“A lot of flights were canceled worldwide whenever there was a surge in COVID-19 cases, whether it was Omicron or another variant,” she said.
At 0.22%, Delta Air Lines has one of the lowest shares of canceled flights.
“These do not include weather, National Air System, and security-related flight cancellations,” Gonzalez said.
The report also found that Envoy, SkyWest, and Delta all tied in the category of best airlines for pets.
“Delta was able to offer good travel conditions for pets so that there were no animal-related incidents on its flights,” Gonzalez said.
When it comes to price, however, the study further found that Delta came in 10th place and is the second least affordable airline, which is calculated as passenger revenue per available seat mile.
Frontier Airlines offers the cheapest flights, according to the data, and Jet Blue is the most comfortable.
“Affordability was calculated as passenger revenue per available seat mile,” Gonzalez said. “For Frontier, this value was 3.53 cents/mile, while for Delta, it was 10.05 cents/mile.”
United Airlines landed in 7th place overall after Envoy, Spirit, and SkyWest Airlines.
“United ranked seventh because it has a large number of consumer complaints, and it’s not very affordable,” Gonzalez said. “It also had a lot of aviation incidents that resulted in passenger injuries and has an old fleet.”
On the upside, the data shows that United Airlines has a low share of canceled and delayed flights and a small number of mishandled baggage reports, and no denied boardings.
“It also scored high for in-flight comfort and had no fatal injuries,” Gonzalez said.
The study placed American Airlines and Southwest at the bottom of the list in 10th and 11th place, respectively.
“They both have a large share of canceled and delayed flights, and a large number of mishandled baggage reports and involuntary denied boardings,” Gonzalez added. “American Airlines also has a large number of consumer complaints. Both airlines rank low for affordability, have old fleets, and had several injuries in aviation incidents, including fatal injuries for Southwest.”