On airlines’ long, uneven shift from empty flights to packed planes, 2023 will go down as the year they got their act together. Matt Sparks, senior vice president of operations at Delta, credits the airline’s 100,000 employees, 40,000 of them relatively new, for the airline’s strong showing. Gaining on DeltaAlaska gives Delta a run for its money as best operator every year and gained some ground in 2023. (Due to a data reporting lag in some metrics, the impact wasn’t fully reflected in our 2022 airline rankings.) (The DOT hasn’t yet released data on late 2023 complaints.)

Source: Wall Street Journal January 24, 2024 12:53 UTC