In the face of a down economy, airlines experienced their best performance in four years in 2008, according to a study by the Airline Quarterly Rating, AQR. This is especially good news for travelers given that 2007 brought the most complaints in more than 10 years.

AQR’s study looked at government statistics provided by the Transportation Department  that showed airlines were on time 3% more often.

The statistics show that for 17 airlines, complaints went down to 1.15 complaints per 100,000 passengers in 2008 from 1.42 complaints per passengers in 2007.

Overall, Southwest Airlines (LUV) scored the best with only 0.25 complaints per 100,000 passengers.On the other end of the spectrum, US Airways had the highest consumer complaint rate. 

Overbooking that would result in a passenger being refused travel dropped from 1.14 per 10,000 passengers in 2007 to 1.1 passengers in 2008.

Additionally, lost bags decreased to 5.19 bags in 2008. AirTran weighed in with the best baggage handling rate, while American Eagle had the worse, with 9.89 mishandled bags per 1,000 passengers.

Of course, the increased satisfaction could be due to a decrease in travelers. In 2007, a record 770 million passengers traveled by air, while in 2008, only 741 million passengers traveled by air.

USAirways wins "the-most-improve-airline" of the year award while United made the least gains up the ladder. 

Hawaiian Airlines, which tops the rankings, also had the best on-time performance--with 90% last year. American Airlines was on time 69.8% of the time. 

Here's a ranking of 17 major U.S. airlines, according to the Airline Quality Rating:
1. Hawaiian
2. AirTran
3. Jet Blue
4. Northwest
5. Alaska
6. Southwest
7. Frontier
8. Continental
9. American
10. US Airways
11. United
12. Delta
13. SkyWest
14. Mesa
15. Comair
16. American Eagle
17. Atlantic Southeast