American Airlines Was Just Named the 2nd Best Airline In the World. The Reason Why Is Eye-Opening
美國航空公司剛剛在世界最佳航空公司被評選為第二名，
背後的原因發人深思
By Bill Murphy Jr︱May 11, 2019
Qatar Airlines was first. American Airlines was second, worldwide.
全世界，卡達航空第一，美國航空第二。
Every once in a while, one organization or another will rate the airlines. Sometimes, it seems like the same story over and over. Often enough, it's Southwest Airlines topping the list within the U.S. -- although as I wrote earlier, there was a recent crack in that armor.
每隔一段時間，這個或那個組織會對航空公司進行評級。有時候，這就像在一遍又一遍地講著相同的故事。通常情況下，西南航空公司會在美國名列榜首 — 但正如我之前所說過的，最近這一鐵打的格局出現了裂縫。
armor:盔甲
Now, there's a new study out ranking 72 of the top airlines all over the world, and I think a lot of passengers will be truly surprised at what U.S. airline ranked tops in North America, and second in the entire world.
現在，一項新的調查，排出了世界上72家頂級航空公司，我認為很多乘客會對究竟是哪個美國航空公司在北美排名第一，在全世界排名第二感到驚訝。
That airline is American Airlines. I think that may be a bit of a surprise some passengers. My colleague Chris Matyszczyk recently reported on American as the airline whose own senior vice president of sales, marketing and loyalty believes it has no brand purpose.
那家航空公司就是美國航空公司。我想這可能會讓一些乘客有點驚訝。我的同事克裡斯 馬蒂斯奇克（Chris Matyszczyk）最近報導說，作為一家航空公司，美國航空公司主管銷售、營銷和忠誠度的高級副總裁認為他們沒有品牌目的。
But let's set that aside, and focus on the study. It comes from AirHelp, a company that specializes in helping airline passengers whose flights are delayed in Europe get compensation under a European Union regulation called EC 261. We're talking $700 here.
但讓我們把這先放在一邊，把注意力集中在調查研究上。研究來自AirHelp公司，這是一家專門幫助在歐洲航班延誤的航空公司乘客根據歐盟的一項稱為EC 261的法規獲得賠償的公司。這裡說的賠償是700美元。
(Quick aside: I'm a bit of an evangelist on this because I learned of the existence of EC 261 literally one day after the three-year statute of limitations expired for a badly delayed flight my wife and I were on from Rome. In short, you should read this so you don't make my bad mistake.)
（順便說一句：我在這方面有點像個傳教士，因為在我和妻子從羅馬起飛的一次嚴重延誤的飛行當中，我確實了解到了EC 261的存在。簡而言之，你應該讀這個，這樣你就不會犯我的錯誤。）
evangelist：傳教士
statute:法令
Anyway, given AirHelp's business, the three criteria it used to judge airlines make sense. They include:
不管怎樣，考慮到AirHelp的業務，它用來判斷航空公司的三個標準是有意義的。它們包括：
On-time performance (33.33 percent). "We count any flight that departed within 15 minutes of its published departure time, and arrived within 15 minutes of its published arrival time as an on-time flight." 準時飛行（33.33%）。我們將在公布的起飛時間後15分鐘內起飛並在公布的抵達時間後15分鐘內抵達的任何航班計算為準時航班。」
Service quality (33.33 percent). "[W]e ran hundreds of surveys where we asked over 40 thousand people in more than 40 countries for their opinions." 服務質量（33.33%）。我們進行了數百次調查，向40多個國家的4萬多人徵求他們的意見。」
Claim processing (33.33 percent). "We have a unique insight into this with our own data on how well airlines process their customers' claims for compensation." 索賠處理（33.33%）。我們對這一點有獨到的見解，我們自己的數據顯示航空公司如何處理其客戶的索賠。」
Using those criteria, here's how the airlines ranked:
以此為標準，航空公司排名如下
Qatar Airways 卡達航空公司
American Airlines 美國航空公司
Aeromexico 墨西哥航空公司
SAS Scandinavian Airlines 北歐航空公司
Qantas 澳洲航空公司
LATAM Airlines 南美航空公司
WestJet 西捷航空公司
Luxair 盧森堡航空公司
Austrian Airlines 奧地利航空公司
Emirates 阿聯航空公司
United came in 16th, and Delta was 17th. Southwest wasn't on the list at all; I'm assuming it would have been difficult to include them because AirHelp is focused on the European regulation, and Southwest doesn't fly to Europe.
美聯航排第16位，，三角洲航空公司排第17位。西南航空根本沒有排進名單；我想很難把它們包括進來，因AirHelp公司的重點是歐洲的規章制度，西南航空根本不飛往歐洲。
Now, if I were a more cynical person, I might stop to scratch my head over the fact that these rankings basically seem to order airlines by how likely they are to wind up paying claims to AirHelp's customers.
你看，如果我是一個多疑的人，我也許會停下來對這樣一個事實感到頭疼：這些排名似乎基本上是通過航空公司向AirHelp的客戶支付索賠的可能性來排名這些航空公司。
I might also note that given the third criteria, an airline has to have had done enough things to cause customers to have claims in the first place -- if you want to rank them by how quickly and easily they pony up.
我也可能還會注意到，考慮到第三個標準，航空公司首先必須做了足夠的事情才讓客戶提出索賠——如果你想根據他們支付索賠的速度和容易程度對他們進行排名的話。
But no matter. I'd rather just let American Airlines bask in the glory of its fine showing: Second in the world, and at the top of a pile of airlines that "put customers first [and] come out ahead," as AirHelp put it in a press release.
但沒關係。正如AirHelp在新聞發布會上所說，我寧願讓美國航空公司沐浴在其精彩表演的榮耀中：在世界第二，在一堆「把客戶放在第一位（和）走在前列」的航空公司中。
Sure enough, when I asked American for comment, they took a little pride in their achievements:
當然，當我請美國航空發表評論時，他們對自己的成就感到自豪：
"We are proud of our 130,000 team members who ensure the safe transportation of more than 500,000 customers each day," the company said. "In 2019, running the safest and most reliable operation in our history is one of our top focus areas, as we continue to improve and modernize the customer experience."
該公司表示：「我們為13萬名團隊成員感到自豪，他們確保了每天超過50萬名乘客的安全運輸。」2019年，隨著我們不斷改善和對客戶體驗的現代化，我們的著重點之一就是進行公司歷史上最安全和最可靠的運營。」
Nice job, American. Now maybe let's work on that brand purpose thing.
幹得好，美國航空。現在，也許我們能來研究一下品牌目標了。
2018年世界上最安全的航空公司有哪些呢。英語讀頭條（第242期）
冷靜的西南航空飛行員被譽為 「英雄"。英語讀頭條（第318期）
你的真愛可能在天上，我是認真的。英語讀頭條（第432期）
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