JetBlue No. 1 in airline quality ranking

JetBlue was rated No. 1 for the second year in a row in the annual Airline Quality Ranking report that uses four criteria to judge airlines: how often flights are on time, and how often they bump passengers, mishandle baggage and log passenger complaints.

AirTran came in second, Southwest third and United fourth. Of the other major carriers, Northwest ranked seventh, American eighth, Continental ninth, Delta 11th and US Airways 12th.

But if you look at the data behind the rankings, you’ll find the differences aren’t such a big deal. For example, JetBlue flights are on time 81.8 percent of the time, while flights on US Airways are on time 79.2 percent of the time.

The full study is available at www.wichita.edu/aqr2004.