Flying high

Staff -- Logistics Management, 8/1/2001

As the United States is drawn further into the global economy, shippers increasingly rely on air carriers to speed their goods across borders. At the same time, the shift to smaller, lighter, and more frequent shipments has meant more business for air-express carriers, which operate their own fleet of aircraft and trucks.

As a group, the airlines lost a little bit of altitude this year. Their composite customer satisfaction score slid from 31.86 to 31.09. This year's score was dragged down by declines in the on-time performance, information technology, and equipment and operations rankings. The on-time performance rating fell from 10.45 to 10.13, the equipment and operations rating skidded from 3.92 to 3.38, and the information technology score dropped from 4.13 to 3.83. Grades did climb somewhat in the other categories: The value ranking rose from 7.22 to 7.47, while customer service went up from 6.13 to 6.29.

Despite the decline in the aggregate ratings, our readers named more airlines to the Readers' Choice list this year than they did in 2000. Six carriers received awards this year compared with five last year. Soaring high in our readers' estimation were Southwest Airlines, Lufthansa Cargo, KLM, Alaska Airlines, Korean Airlines, and US Airways.

This year, three air-express carriers also exceeded readers' soaring expectations for quality. Flying higher than the rest were FedEx Express, United Parcel

Service, and DHL Worldwide Express. Both FedEx and UPS were winners last year as well.

Like the airlines, the air-express carriers saw their ratings slip a bit. This year, their composite weighted score was 33.24, a slight dip from last year's 34.00. Marks rose in just two categories: customer service, which went from 6.36 to 6.61, and value, whose ranking ascended from 7.39 to 7.92. The grades in the other three categories plummeted from last year's levels. The on-time performance score fell from 11.42 to 10.87, while information technology dropped from 4.61 to 4.20, and the equipment and operations score plunged from 4.22 to 3.64.

Air Carriers

Airlines	On-time performance	Value	Information technology	Customer service	Equipment & operations	Weighted score
Southwest Airlines	12.39	9.00	4.52	7.68	3.89	37.48
Lufthansa Cargo	11.46	8.58	4.45	7.26	3.73	35.49
KLM	10.97	7.48	4.22	6.68	3.67	33.02
Alaska Airlines	11.32	7.54	3.80	6.20	3.28	32.15
Korean Airlines	10.71	7.41	3.91	6.38	3.39	31.80
US Airways	10.55	7.46	3.66	6.27	3.28	31.22
Average	10.13	7.47	3.83	6.29	3.38	31.09
Air-Express Carriers
FedEx Express	12.63	8.11	4.96	7.51	4.14	37.34
United Parcel Service	11.50	8.55	4.83	6.90	4.00	35.79
DHL Worldwide Express	11.11	7.94	4.14	6.78	3.58	33.54
Average	10.87	7.92	4.20	6.61	3.64	33.24
All scores are weighted. Weighted scores are determined by multiplying the average raw scores by the average weighted importance of each attribute (1=least important; 5=most important). To find the attributed weights for this category, see the table titled “Performance Attributes’ Importance Ranked by Mode” in the introduction to the Quest for Quality report.