For discussion, since the whole premise is pretty ridiculous IMO, Fortune's Most Admired Companies List has WN as the world's third most admired airline behind CO (#1) and AF/KLM (#2):
Fortune's Most Admired Airlines
There are discussions about this in the
CO Forum and
DL Forum (DL ranked #6) and others too I'm sure.
The
methodology consisted of surveying "executives, directors, and analysts." How much faith would you put in any executive, director, or analyst who admires a money losing company more than one that makes money? A sad commentary that unfortunately these types of rankings are nothing more than popularity contests, even when those creating them should know better.