We've All Resigned Ourselves to Airport Hell

By Madeleine Davies  |  April 7, 2014 | 6:50pm
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There’s a calm that comes with surrender. Like Joan of Arc on the stake or a particularly stoic French aristocrat approaching his own death at the guillotine, we the American people have made finally peace with our makers and are giving in to the slow torture that accompanies a trip to the airport.

According to the annual Airline Quality Rating report (conducted by researchers at Wichita State University and Arizona’s Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University), air travel has become even more unpleasant in the past year, with increases in delayed or off-schedule flights and incidents of mishandled luggage.

American Eagle was the biggest offender when it came to off-schedule flights, with only 72.1 percent of its planes arriving and departing on time. Hawaiian Airlines was the most reliable in regards to punctuality — 93 percent of their flights were on schedule.

American Eagle also has the worst record for lost and mishandled baggage. 5.9 out of every 1,000 American Eagle customers experienced luggage problems caused by the airline. Virgin America had the fewest baggage complaints with only 0.97 out of every 1,000 customers having issues.

The most sorrowful part of all of this? While the overall number of airline issues went up between 2012 and 2013, the number of complaints lodged with the government by unsatisfied patrons has fallen by 15% in the past year, all because we’ve simply grown accustomed to our own airport mistreatment and have accepted it as status quo.

Image via Getty.

 
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