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Survey: Airline customer satisfaction declines

Associated Press file photo

US Airways ranked lowest in customer satisfaction among traditional network carriers.

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By TED JACKOVICS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 30, 2009

Flying to a vacation or business destination clearly is not even half the fun of trips for domestic airline passengers, a 2009 J.D. Power and Associates report released this morning said.

Overall customer satisfaction with airlines declined for a third consecutive year to a four-year low in 2009, despite the improvement of on-time arrival rates from a year ago, the 2009 North American Airline Satisfaction Study found.

The survey involved 12,900 passengers who flew between April 2008 and May of this year. It measured passenger costs and fees; flight crews; in-flight services; aircraft; boarding/deplaning/baggage; check-in, and reservations.

Passengers were more dissatisfied with in-flight services, flight crew and costs and fees, compared with the 2008 survey.

They cited improvements in on-time travel and trimming time waiting to check in at main ticket counters.

JetBlue Airways ranked first among low-cost carriers for the fourth consecutive year, followed by Southwest Airlines, WestJet, Frontier Airlines and AirTran Airways.

JetBlue performed particularly well in the aircraft and in-flight services portion of the survey.

Southwest performed well with regard to cost and fees and reservation measures. It was the only airline in the 2009 study to show improved scores overall from 2008, with notable increases in reservations, check-in, and boarding/deplaning baggage.

Alaska Airlines had the highest customer satisfaction among traditional network carriers, followed by Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Air Canada, American Airlines, northwest Airlines, United Airlines and US Airways.

Alaska Airlines performed particularly well in five measures, the exceptions being in-flight services and reservations.

Reporter Ted Jackovics can be reached at (813) 259-7817.

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