Best U.S. Airlines: 2013 Edition

It's that time of year again. The Airfarewatchdog team has been hard at work crunching numbers to determine the best domestic airlines. (In case you missed last year's rankings, you can see them here.) We took a look at performance in five key areas—canceled flights, on-time arrivals, mishandled bags, denied boardings, and customer satisfaction—to determine the best of the best in 2013.

Top Airlines for Overall Performance*

Frontier	1^st Place
&nbspVirgin America	2^nd Place
JetBlue	3^rd Place
Alaska	4^th Place
Southwest	5^th Place
Delta	6^th Place
AirTran	7^th Place
US Airways	8^th Place
American	9^th Place
United	&nbsp10^th Place

*Rankings determined by combining the airlines' scores in all categories

Individual Categories

Fewest Cancelled Flights*
&nbspVirgin America	0.16% Cancelled
Frontier	0.29% Cancelled
Delta	0.42% Cancelled
Alaska	0.43% Cancelled
JetBlue	0.74% Cancelled
Southwest	0.78% Cancelled
United	1.27% Cancelled
US Airways	1.39% Cancelled
American	1.42% Cancelled
AirTran	&nbsp1.52% Cancelled

*Based on Department of Transportation (DOT) report on June 2013 flight cancellations at all reportable airports

On-Time Arrivals*
Alaska	&nbsp87.5% On-Time
Frontier	77.9% On-Time
Delta	76.1% On-Time
US Airways	73.0% On-Time
Southwest	72.5% On-Time
United	71.1% On-Time
&nbspVirgin America	70.6% On-Time
American	69.8% On-Time
JetBlue	69.6% On-Time
AirTran	65.9% On-Time

*Based on DOT report on June 2013 on-time arrivals at all reportable airports

Fewest Mishandled Bags*
Virgin America	0.95 Mishandled
JetBlue	2.14 Mishandled
Frontier	2.19 Mishandled
Delta	2.78 Mishandled
US Airways	3.09 Mishandled
Alaska	3.50 Mishandled
American	3.59 Mishandled
United	4.06 Mishandled
Southwest	4.23 Mishandled
AirTran	5.19 Mishandled

*Based on DOT report on June 2013 mishandled baggage reports per 1K passengers

Amount of Denied Boardings*
JetBlue	2 Denied
Virgin America	7 Denied
Alaska	32 Denied
American	33 Denied
US Airways	66 Denied
Delta	86 Denied
United	93 Denied
AirTran	136 Denied
Frontier	138 Denied
Southwest	148 Denied

*Based on DOT report on April to June 2013 involuntary denied boardings per 1MM passengers

Customer Satisfaction Score*
JetBlue	83
AirTran	81
Southwest	81
Virgin America	72
Alaska	72
Frontier	72
Delta	68
American	65
US Airways	64
United	62

*Based on June 2013 American Consumer Survey Index scores

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