JetBlue flies high in rankings

In the first year it carried enough passengers to be ranked, JetBlue was No. 1 in quality among US airlines in 2003, according to a recently released study. The budget carrier had the second-best, on-time performance, arriving punctually 86% of the time. So few of the airline’s customers were bumped that they did not register in the statistics used by researchers at the US Transportation Department. The study ranked airlines by on-time performance, passenger complaints, baggage handling and other factors. JetBlue customers filed fewer complaints, 0.31 per 100,000 customers, than any other airlines but Southwest. The Transportation Department overall ranked Alaska Airlines No. 2, followed by Southwest, America West and US Airways. Authors of the study said they expected low-cost airlines to continue finding favor with flyers. They now carry one quarter of the market, which researchers predicted would rise to four passengers in 10 by 2006. –Report by David Wilkening–