Delta Air Lines Inc comes in first in a long-running study that ranks US airlines by how often flights arrive on time and other statistical measures.
Researchers who crunch the numbers also say that as a whole, US airlines are getting better at handling baggage and overcrowded flights, and are getting fewer complaints.
The annual study — now in its 29th year — by researchers at Wichita State University and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University was released yesterday. It used data collected last year by the US Department of Transportation on rates of on-time arrivals, mishandled baggage, bumping passengers and consumer complaints.
Delta, which rose from second place last year, was the only carrier to improve in all four categories, the researchers said.
JetBlue Airways Corp ranked second, followed by Southwest Airlines Co and last year’s winner, Alaska Airlines.
Discount carrier Frontier Airlines Inc ranked last.
Overall, the industry improved in three of the four categories studied, including fewer passengers being involuntarily bumped from flights.
For several years, airlines have been cutting that rate by enticing more customers to take vouchers in exchange for volunteering to get off oversold flights.
“They are buying out customers better than ever,” Embry-Riddle researcher Brent Bowen said, but added that the rate of late-arriving flights increased.
“It was computer glitches and it was weather,” Bowen said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group