Below is the 2014 numerical ranking of the nation’s leading 12 airlines, according to the AQR, with 2013 ranking in parentheses:

Virgin America (1)
Hawaiian (3)
Delta (4)
JetBlue (2)
Alaska (5)
Southwest (8) (includes AirTran)
American (9) (includes USAirways)
Frontier (11)
United (12) (includes Continental)
SkyWest (14)
ExpressJet (13)
Envoy/ American Eagle (15)
On-time performance – Hawaiian Airlines had the best on-time performance (91.9 percent) for 2014, and Envoy/American Eagle had the worst (68.8 percent).
Denied boardings – Virgin America and Hawaiian are the industry leaders in avoiding denied boarding incidents with a rate of 0.09 and 0.12 per 10,000 passengers, respectively. ExpressJet and SkyWest had the highest involuntary denied boarding rate at 2.71 per 10,000 passengers for both airlines.
Baggage handling – Virgin America had the best baggage handling rate (0.95 mishandled bags per 1,000 passengers) and Envoy/American Eagle had the worst baggage handling rate (9.02 mishandled bags per 1,000 passengers).
Consumer complaints – Alaska had the lowest consumer complaint rate (0.42 per 100,000 passengers). Frontier had the highest consumer complaint rate (3.91 per 100,000 passengers).