Airline passenger satisfaction in North America falls to 4-year low

Airline customer satisfaction in the North America region dropped in 2009 for the third consecutive year.

A survey conducted by J D Power and Associates, in which over 12,900 business travellers and leisure travellers took part, also found that airline customer satisfaction fell to a low in 4 years.

The survey measured airlines in seven categories – cost and fees, flight crew, in-flight services, boarding/deplaning/baggage, aircraft, reservation and check-in.
Even though airlines in the North America region achieved more flights on-time in 2009, the poor customer satisfaction was prompted by lower liking with in-flight services, flight crews as well as fees.

In a statement, Dale Haines, senior director of travel practice at the research group J D Power and Associates, said that any improvements in customer satisfaction were being offset by passenger dissatisfaction with reductions in in-flight amenities, increases in fees as well as unhelpful attitudes of flight crews.

In an effort that was initially intended to cope with the impact of the high prices of aviation turbine fuel, a number of airlines had, in 2008, started charging extra for services which used to be a part of the ticket price – including additional fees for things like snacks and checked luggage. However, many carriers did not bother to take away those extra charges despite the prices of fuel having declined since.

The survey revealed that the customer-reported length of flight delays dropped by 8 minutes to 64 minutes. The average wait times to check baggage or get a boarding pass at the main counter of an airline declined by 2 minutes to 12 minutes.

The agency used data from the United States Department of Transportation to come to the conclusion that the overall rate of on-time arrivals got better by over 5 percentage points from 2008 – to 78% in 2009.

For a fourth successive year, JetBlue Airways, the low-fare carrier based in New York, the United States, ranked first in the budget-airline segment. JetBlue did well in 2 of 7 categories measured – aircraft, and in-flight services.

Southwest Airlines, headquartered in Dallas, Texas, the United States, and the Canada-based low-cost carrier WestJet shared the second place vis-à-vis airline passenger satisfaction. According to Dale Haines, of J D Power and Associates, Southwest Airlines performed especially well in the ‘measures’ of cost and fees, and reservation.

WestJet, which was included by the research agency in the study for the first time in 2009, performed admirably in the departments of boarding/ deplaning/ baggage, check-in, and flight-crew.

Among the ‘legacy network’ carriers, Alaska Airlines, based in Seattle, Washington, the United States, topped the list in airline passenger satisfaction for the second year in a row.

Alaska Airlines was followed by Continental Airlines in the second place. Delta Air Lines took the third place.