Virgin America performed best of 14 US airlines

Virgin America performed best of 14 US airlines last year, United was the worst

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Virgin America turned in the best performance last year of the 14 largest U.S. airlines, while United Airlines had the worst performance in an annual airline quality report released Monday. The report is based on government data on on-time arrivals, mishandled bags, consumer complaints and passengers with tickets who were denied seats due to overbookings.

Here's how the airlines ranked in 2012, as well as their position the previous year.

1) Virgin America (new to the ranking this year(asterisk))

2) JetBlue (3)

3) AirTran (1)

4) Delta (6)

5) Hawaiian (2)

6) Alaska (5)

7) Frontier (4)

8) Southwest (7)

9) US Airways (8)

10) American (10)

11) American Eagle (15)

12) SkyWest (9)

13) ExpressJet (new to the ranking this year(asterisk))

14) United (12)

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(asterisk) In order to qualify for inclusion in the report, an airline must carry at least 1 percent of domestic passengers.