Airlines had more delayed flights, more lost luggage in 2014, report says

If you think flying was more of a hassle last year, it’s not in your head. The 25th annual Airline Quality Rating released Monday says U.S. carriers slipped in their performance in 2014.

The report rates 12 airlines on four criteria gleaned from U.S. Department of Transportation data: on-time arrivals, mishandled luggage, bumped passengers and number of consumer complaints.

The 2014 rating says airline performance was the worst in four years. The on-time arrival decreased from 78.4% in 2013 to 76.2% in 2014. There were more passengers bumped off flights -- a rate of .92 per 10,000 fliers -- than the previous year, and more mishandled bags too.

Consumer complaints were up in 2014 as well, rising to 1.38 from 1.13 per 100,000 passengers. Most complaints were about problems related to flights, customer service and their luggage.

Among the bright points: Hawaiian Airlines, Alaska Airlines and Virgin America improved their scores, just not in every category.

For example, the report says Alaska Airlines had fewer customer complaints and fewer mishandled bags in 2014. But it also did slightly worse in on-time arrivals and bumping passengers. (The two prior positives raised its rating.)

Virgin America had high ratings in all categories except on-time performance, which dipped slightly in 2014. Hawaiian Airlines remains tops for more than 90% of its flight being on time, even though the percentage of flights slipped slightly in 2014.

The rating was done by Wichita State University in Kansas and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University based in Florida.

Download the Airline Quality Rating 2015 report here.