American Airlines Was Just Named the 2nd Best Airline In the World. The Reason Why Is Eye-Opening
美国航空公司刚刚在世界最佳航空公司被评选为第二名，
背后的原因发人深思
By Bill Murphy Jr︱May 11, 2019
Qatar Airlines was first. American Airlines was second, worldwide.
全世界，卡塔尔航空第一，美国航空第二。
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.
每隔一段时间，这个或那个组织会对航空公司进行评级。有时候，这就像在一遍又一遍地讲着相同的故事。通常情况下，西南航空公司会在美国名列榜首 — 但正如我之前所说过的，最近这一铁打的格局出现了裂缝。
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.
现在，一项新的调查，排出了世界上72家顶级航空公司，我认为很多乘客会对究竟是哪个美国航空公司在北美排名第一，在全世界排名第二感到惊讶。
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国航空公司。我想这可能会让一些乘客有点惊讶。我的同事克里斯 马蒂斯奇克（Chris Matyszczyk）最近报道说，作为一家航空公司，美国航空公司主管销售、营销和忠诚度的高级副总裁认为他们没有品牌目的。
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.
但让我们把这先放在一边，把注意力集中在调查研究上。研究来自AirHelp公司，这是一家专门帮助在欧洲航班延误的航空公司乘客根据欧盟的一项称为EC 261的法规获得赔偿的公司。这里说的赔偿是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.)
（顺便说一句：我在这方面有点像个传教士，因为在我和妻子从罗马起飞的一次严重延误的飞行当中，我确实了解到了EC 261的存在。简而言之，你应该读这个，这样你就不会犯我的错误。）
evangelist：传教士
statute:法令
Anyway, given AirHelp's business, the three criteria it used to judge airlines make sense. They include:
不管怎样，考虑到AirHelp的业务，它用来判断航空公司的三个标准是有意义的。它们包括：
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." 准时飞行（33.33%）。我们将在公布的起飞时间后15分钟内起飞并在公布的抵达时间后15分钟内抵达的任何航班计算为准时航班。”
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." 服务质量（33.33%）。我们进行了数百次调查，向40多个国家的4万多人征求他们的意见。”
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." 索赔处理（33.33%）。我们对这一点有独到的见解，我们自己的数据显示航空公司如何处理其客户的索赔。”
Using those criteria, here's how the airlines ranked:
以此为标准，航空公司排名如下
Qatar Airways 卡塔尔航空公司
American Airlines 美国航空公司
Aeromexico 墨西哥航空公司
SAS Scandinavian Airlines 北欧航空公司
Qantas 澳洲航空公司
LATAM Airlines 南美航空公司
WestJet 西捷航空公司
Luxair 卢森堡航空公司
Austrian Airlines 奥地利航空公司
Emirates 阿联酋航空公司
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.
美联航排第16位，，三角洲航空公司排第17位。西南航空根本没有排进名单；我想很难把它们包括进来，因AirHelp公司的重点是欧洲的规章制度，西南航空根本不飞往欧洲。
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，如果我是一个多疑的人，我也许会停下来对这样一个事实感到头疼：这些排名似乎基本上是通过航空公司向AirHelp的客户支付索赔的可能性来排名这些航空公司。
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.
我也可能还会注意到，考虑到第三个标准，航空公司首先必须做了足够的事情才让客户提出索赔——如果你想根据他们支付索赔的速度和容易程度对他们进行排名的话。
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.
但没关系。正如AirHelp在新闻发布会上所说，我宁愿让美国航空公司沐浴在其精彩表演的荣耀中：在世界第二，在一堆“把客户放在第一位（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:
当然，当我请美国航空发表评论时，他们对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."
该公司表示：“我们为13万名团队成员感到自豪，他们确保了每天超过50万名乘客的安全运输。”2019年，随着我们不断改善和对客户体验的现代化，我们的着重点之一就是进行公司历史上最安全和最可靠的运营。”
Nice job, American. Now maybe let's work on that brand purpose thing.
干得好，美国航空。现在，也许我们能来研究一下品牌目标了。
2018年世界上最安全的航空公司有哪些呢。英语读头条（第242期）
冷静的西南航空飞行员被誉为 “英雄"。英语读头条（第318期）
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