Okay, the competition couldn’t have been all that stiff. Continental Airlines was rated the top airline in Fortune magazine‘s annual list of most admired companies. Its score of 7.71 was not good enough to push the company into the top 50, though. This is the sixth year in a row that Continental has taken the lead spot in the airline category. Somehow, Southwest is listed as #7 on the full list, though it scored behind Continental.
Looks like Fortune is suffering from a case of “journalist’s math.”
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Larry Kellner said that “Continental’s more than 42,000 co-workers are the reason for our success, and I’m proud to see their hard work recognized again this year.” Apparently, he has forgotten that the passengers shelling out cash to fly on the airline’s 2,800 daily departures might have something to do with that, too.
Air France-KLM followed Continental with a score of 7.15. Southwest Airlines (6.89), Singapore Airlines (6.57) and Delta Airlines (6.18) were also recognized on the Fortune list.
Funny, JetBlue didn’t show up.