But industry as a whole has poor showing

Atlanta-based AirTran was ranked number one among 16 U.S. carriers in the annual Airline Quality Rating put out for almost 20 years now by academics from Wichita State University and the University of Nebraska. The results are based on various data assembled by the Transportation Department, including flight delay statistics, passenger bumpings, complaints, lost luggage numbers and so on. The researchers said the overall industry score for 2007 was the worst in the history of their report, with significant declines in virtually every category they study. For example, more than one-fourth of all flights arrived late last year, up from 24.5 percent in 2006; and consumer complaints rose by 60 percent. Among individual airlines, AirTran had the best performance rating (up from third place last year), followed by JetBlue, Southwest, Northwest and Frontier. Ranking at the bottom of the 16 airlines was Atlantic Southeast; next to last was American Eagle.