CSBJ Daily

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON _ The annual Airline Quality Rating survey released today found that the industry did a poor job last year. There were more lost bags, more bumped passengers, more consumer complaints and fewer on-time flights than in the previous year.

The rate of consumer complaints was up 60 percent. US Airways had the most complaints last year. Southwest had the fewest.

All these problems are making travelers grumpy, the annual survey said.

The past year “was the worst year ever for the U.S. airlines,” said Brent Bowen, a study co-author and professor at the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s Aviation Institute. “Overall operational performance and quality declined once again to the lowest level that it’s ever been.”

AirTran and Jet Blue have taken the top spots in a national survey of airline quality.

They were followed by Southwest, Northwest and Frontier airlines. At the bottom of the list was Atlantic Southeast Airlines.

The industry posted declines last year in every area of the Airline Quality Rating, amid rising fuel prices, safety problems and bankruptcy filings that shut down three carriers last week alone.

The rate of consumer complaints, for example, more than doubled at US Airways and Comair, and rose for 15 of the 16 airlines included in the study. The exception was Mesa Airlines.

On-time arrivals dropped for the fifth straight year, with more than one-quarter of all flights late, according to the survey. The rates of passengers bumped from overbooked flights and bags lost, stolen or damaged also jumped in 2007.