Southwest Airlines' Stunning Comeback: How They Topped the 2025 Airline Rankings While Others Plummet

Southwest Airlines Soars Amid Falling Airline Customer Service Scores

After years of operational struggles, Southwest Airlines has reclaimed its throne as the best-performing U.S. carrier. The Dallas-based carrier topped the 2025 Airline Quality Rating (AQR), proving that sometimes the old-school approach to airline service still works.

While Southwest was fixing its problems, former industry darling Delta Air Lines was busy creating new ones. The Atlanta carrier plummeted from first place in 2022 to seventh in 2024 — the biggest drop of any major airline.

"Southwest is the only airline that improved every measure, every year from 2022 to 2024," says Andrea Irish, an assistant professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University's Prescott campus, who now authors the annual report. "They earned the number one rank by actually getting better at everything."

The 2025 Airline Quality Rating, now in its 34th year, uses government data to rank airlines on what matters most to passengers: on-time arrivals, baggage handling, bumping passengers off flights, and customer complaints. This year’s results covering 2023 and 2024, which were shared exclusively with Forbes, will be released tomorrow.

Here's how the 10 major U.S. airlines ranked for 2024

1. Southwest Airlines (-0.03)
2. Alaska Airlines (-0.79)
3. Hawaiian Airlines (-0.86)
4. Allegiant Airlines (-1.43)
5. United Airlines (-1.89)
6. JetBlue Airways (-2.29)
7. Delta Air Lines (-2.56)
8. Spirit Airlines (-3.21)
9. American Airlines (-3.33)
10. Frontier Airlines (-6.27)

The AQR uses a weighted formula that combines all four performance metrics into a single score. Higher scores are worse — so, for example, Southwest's winning score of -0.03 was dramatically better than last-place Frontier's -6.27.

The big winner: Southwest’s comeback story

Southwest's rise to the top marks a dramatic return to form after its December 2022 operational meltdown, which canceled 16,900 flights, stranded 2 million passengers, and resulted in a record $140 million fine.

That crisis exposed the airline's outdated operations but also forced a reckoning, leading to a deliberate, company-wide "mindset change," according to Justin Jones, Southwest's executive vice president of operations.

The strategy was simple but effective: focus on running “the operation with as high a completion factor as we possibly could” to ensure schedule predictability. It was backed by a massive investment of over $1.5 billion targeting winter operations, cross-team collaboration, and technology resilience. Jones detailed new de-icing equipment, dedicated crews, and a central dashboard so all departments can see in real-time how their decisions impact the entire network.

The results speak for themselves: the airline improved its on-time performance from 73.2 percent in 2022 to 78.6 percent in 2024, slashed denied boardings, and posted the industry’s lowest complaint rate (1.71 per 100,000 passengers).

Despite this operational success, Jones acknowledges a new challenge: a perception gap fueled by the airline’s recent introduction of fees for checked bags. While the policy hasn't harmed operational metrics, it has increased stress in customer-employee interactions at the gate.

Jones says Southwest has a plan to close the gap.

“We're going to make sure that our policies and procedures match our customer service priority,” he says, noting that the goal is to improve the experience without resorting to the aggressive enforcement tactics common on other carriers.

A dramatic fall for Delta after IT disaster

Delta's customer service collapse may be the report's most surprising revelation. The airline that was once the gold standard for service saw its complaint rate more than triple, from 2.66 per 100,000 passengers in 2022 to 10.01 in 2024.

What happened? Despite maintaining solid on-time performance (consistently over 80 percent for all three years), customer complaints skyrocketed.

"From 2022 through 2024, Delta moved from first to seventh, which is the biggest drop of any airline," Irish notes.

Delta blames a global IT outage last summer for its performance problems. In July 2024, cybersecurity company CrowdStrike sent a faulty update to its security program, which crashed Microsoft Windows computers running the software. About 8.5 million systems were taken down, reportedly one of the largest outages in the history of IT. An estimated 500,000 passengers were affected and the incident cost Delta $550 million in lost revenue and expenses.

"We’ve been focused on safe, stable, on-time operations with bags and with a memorable experience for our customers," a Delta spokesman says. He added that Delta's most recent performance metrics, which are not part of the AQR report, have shown a significant improvement.

For frequent flyers, Delta's scores represent a seismic shift. The airline built its reputation on premium service and reliability. Now it's struggling with basics like customer service.

Alaska, Hawaiian are consistent performers

The AQR also singled out Alaska Airlines as the steadiest performer in the industry. It's the only airline of the 10 domestic airlines that has consistently scored in the top 2 for all the years, finishing second in 2024.

Hawaiian Airlines, meanwhile, proved why it's historically dominated the on-time performance category. The carrier posted the best punctuality record in 9 of the last 10 years.

Frontier, American are the perennial problem children

Frontier Airlines remains stuck at the bottom for the third straight year. The Denver-based budget carrier posted the worst on-time performance (69.5 percent), the highest denial rate (2.25 per 10,000 passengers), and the most customer complaints (25.65 per 100,000 passengers).

Frontier did not respond to a request for a comment.

"Frontier is the only airline of the 10 airlines to remain in the same rank — 10th — for all three reporting years," Irish says.

That's consistency — but not the good kind.

American Airlines, the worst-ranked legacy carrier, isn't far behind. It ranked ninth overall, with the industry's worst baggage handling record for three consecutive years. The airline carrier mishandled 0.84 bags per 100 checked — nearly double Southwest's rate.

What the numbers mean for passengers

So are airlines providing better customer service? The answer is a resounding no. Excluding the pandemic, the 2024 AQR score is the second-lowest ever.

Overall performance improved in some areas — on-time arrivals rose from 73 percent in 2022 to 76.5 percent in 2024, and baggage handling got better too.

But customer complaints surged across the board, jumping from 7.39 per 100,000 passengers in 2022 to 9.19 in 2024.

Passenger volumes have returned to pre-pandemic levels — 774.8 million passengers flew in 2024, up from 752.8 million in 2023 — but airlines haven't scaled their service quality accordingly.

In other words, they can get your plane off the ground on time, but they can't answer your call or resolve your problem without generating a complaint.

"The complaints went way up, and that's highlighting ongoing negative consumer sentiment despite operational gains," Irish explains.

AQRs methodology matters

The AQR report's credibility comes from its objective approach. Unlike other customer satisfaction surveys, the Airline Quality Rating exclusively uses government data that airlines must report monthly.

The AQR system uses a multifactor, weighted average approach to assess airline quality, drawing on publicly available data from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Over the years, the government's reporting requirements have changed, which makes historical comparisons a little tricky.

For example, in 2022, the government changed how it reports mishandled baggage from losses per passenger to losses per 100 checked bags. This gives a more accurate picture of your risk when checking a bag. To maintain comparability, the weights assigned to these criteria have been held constant.

Still, the customer service trend is unmistakable.

The bottom line for air travelers

If you have a choice of airline — and let's be honest, you often don't — book a flight on Southwest. The carrier's service turnaround is real, and it shows in every metric that matters.

Alaska is your second-best bet, offering consistent performance across the board.

You might want to think carefully before booking a ticket on Frontier. The ultra-low-cost model clearly isn't providing customer satisfaction, even if the fares look cheap. And American's baggage problems make it risky for anyone checking bags.

As for Delta? The airline's fall from grace should worry anyone with loyalty to the brand. Until it fixes its customer service problems, that premium you're paying for a ticket isn't buying you premium treatment.

The latest Airline Quality Rating suggests the U.S. airline industry's recovery from the pandemic has been uneven. Some air carriers learned the right lessons. Others are still figuring it out.

Your wallet — and your customer service experience — will depend on knowing the difference.