America's 11 Worst Airlines: AQR

Though it may be hard for the bedraggled frequent fliers among us to believe, America's airlines are getting better.

According to an annual assessment of America's airlines, the overall quality of air travel showed improvement last year, as flights were more likely to arrive on time to their destinations and airlines were less likely to lose passengers' luggage.

Coauthored by Purdue's Brent Bowen and Dean Headley of Wichita State University, the 2010 Airline Quality Rating report surveyed the country's most-flown airlines on four criteria: on-time performance, mishandled baggage, denied boardings and consumer complaints.

But as one of the study's authors, Purdue University professor Brent Bowen, told the AP, the industry's improved performance "does not mean we have fixed the system."

And indeed, while some airlines' excellent service landed them at the top of this year's ranking -- namely first-placed Hawaiian and second-placed AirTran -- the bottom half were notable for their frequently late arrivals, tendency to lose baggage, high rate of customer complaints and more common denied boardings (which were mostly the result of overbooking flights).