Gromit,
The statement would make no sense if I missed out the US carriers bit. I am making a general statement comparing the overall quality of services provided by US carriers versus other carriers outside the US.
In the 1970s and 1980s the US car industry was producing cars which were of a lower quality and higher cost than those produced by Japan for example. The domestic market in the US was so large, the big three convinced themselves they were unbeatable and seemed to think that quality didn't matter. The arrogance of Detroit costs thousands of people their livlihoods and the giants have been humbled.
Is that a comparative analysis of the US Auto industry or bigotry?
Right, now onto US Airlines. I pointed you in the direction of the largest consumer survey of airline quality in the world. This is skytrax (
www.airlinequality.com). The ratings are literally based on millions of traveller ratings and on quality audits. It has a 5 star rating system, similar to hotel type ratings.
There are a total of 6 airlines in the world which achieve the coveted 5 star award. These airlines are Asiana, Qatar, Malaysia, Singapore, Cathay Pacific and Kingfisher. What characterises these airlines? They are all far eastern or middle eastern airlines.
There are 28 airlines in the world which achieve the 4 star award. All of the airlines I cited in my earlier post were either in the 4 or 5 star category.
None of the major US carriers achieve this status either. The category is dominated by European and Asian Carriers. There are only two US carriers in this group and they are high quality low cost carriers (Frontier and JetBlue). I believe Frontier is in Chapter 11. Both are relatively new airlines. Frontier in it's current format and structure has only been around since the mid 90's and I think JetBlue is even newer than that and both are small compared to the giants of the US airline industry.
In the 1970's and 1980's a similar survey of the best quality airlines in the world would have included carriers such as United, PanAm and TWA in the higher ratings.
Now Gromit, you can bury your head in the sand, just as executives and defenders of the US car industry did in the 1970's and 80s or you can face reality. This is an age of global competition and the only thing that is propping up the US airlines in international markets is protectionism.
Your knee jerk response to criticism is to yell bigotry.. I suggest you take a deep breath and try looking at the
evidence