Finally, some good news for airlines
Low fares, improved in-flight services, a growing acceptance of fees, fewer fliers and fewer mishandled bags all added up to improved satisfaction with airlines.
So says J.D. Power and Associates which found in a new study that customer satisfaction with the airlines serving North America improved in the last year, reversing a three-year decline.
“The improvement comes despite a general increase in unpopular add-on fees nearly all airlines have imposed for such services as checking bags, changing bookings and even food and pillows,” says the marketing and consulting company says.
"Passengers don’t like the extra fees, but they are starting to recalibrate their expectations," says Stuart Greif, a J.D. Power and Associates vice president.
The 2010 North America Airline Satisfaction Study of 11 US airlines and one Canadian carrier found consumers giving airlines a satisfaction score of 673 on a 1,000-point scale. That’s 15 points higher than their score last year and the best score since 2007. And 10 of the 12 airlines improved their scores from a year before.
More than 12,300 fliers on major North American airlines April 2009 through April 2010 were surveyed. Satisfaction was based on fare and fees, flight crew, in-flight services, aircraft, boarding, deplaning, baggage, check-in and reservations.
They ranked JetBlue No. 1 among low-cost airlines for the fifth consecutive year. JetBlue also had a higher satisfaction point total than all other airlines.
Alaska Airlines scored highest among so-called traditional network carriers for the third consecutive year, followed by Continental.
AirTran raised its satisfaction score 17 points; it was the only low-cost carrier with a significant improvement. The airline, though, had the second-lowest score among low-cost carriers. It was ahead of Frontier, which scored lower than a year ago. Among "traditional" carriers, satisfaction with Delta Air Lines dropped, but by only a single point.
That may be an accomplishment for Delta, Greif says. Delta last year merged its operations with Northwest, which traditionally scores low.
Though satisfaction improved, it doesn’t mean that everything is OK for passengers, Greif says. This year’s overall satisfaction score is 19 points below airlines’ score in 2006, before many extra fees were instituted.
By David Wilkening
David
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