Dean E. Headley

Achieving Service Quality Through Gap Analysis and a Basic Statistical Approach

Postulates that the use of some key ideas from statistical control thinking can improve service quality. Explores the identification and analysis of gaps in perceptual differences between service customers and service providers as a way of adopting a statistical control philosophy in a service environment. Argues that such a method provides excellent information for creating a true customer‐centred approach to service delivery, being practical, simple in operation and useful for both immediate and long‐term strategic impact.

Benchmarking Airline Service Performance: A Reference Point for Airline and Government Evaluation

The Airline Quality Rating (AQR) was first announced in the early 1990s as an objective mechanism of measuring airline service performance based on multiple selected criteria important to air travel consumers. Since then, AQR results have assisted the government in decision making and airlines in measuring service quality. Initially, annual AQR reports used weighted averages and monthly performance data in the areas of on-time arrivals, involuntary denied boardings, mishandled baggage and a combination category of customer complaints for which major airline comparative performances were reported. To further strengthen the significance of national AQR results, this article revisited AQR data sets and benchmarked four former reports. This article contains an introduction of benchmarking technique, AQR data collection and calculation, benchmarked results, and charts that help to track comparative service quality for major U.S. airlines’ domestic operations.

Airline Quality Rating 2013

The Airline Quality Rating (AQR) is an objective method of comparing the quality of airlines, based on combined multiple performance criteria. This report presents monthly AQR scores for 2002. These AQR scores are based on 15 elements that focus on airline performance areas important to air travel consumers. Month-by-month quality ratings are presented for the 10 largest U.S. airlines operating during 2002. Using the AQR system of weighted averages and monthly performance data in the areas of on-time arrivals, involuntary denied boardings, mishandled baggage, and a combination of 12 customer complaint categories, the comparative performance of the airlines for calendar year 2002 is reported. The report contains a brief summary of the AQR methodology, detailed data and charts that track comparative quality for domestic airline operations for the 12-month period of 2002, and industry average results. Also, comparative AQR data for 2001 are included for each airline to provide historical perspective regarding performance quality in the industry.