UK holiday airlines plummet down league table

UK holiday airlines offer worse service than other European carriers, according to a new Which? survey, which placed Thomas Cook Airlines, Thomson Airways and Monarch close to the bottom of a league table for customer satisfaction.

Ryanair was voted the worst airline by passengers, who gave it a score of only 34%, but the charter airlines scored little better.

Thomas Cook Airlines – which came bottom last year – scored only 36% with passengers this year. The lowly score placed it only just above Ryanair.

However, Thomas Cook Airlines managing director Frank Pullman rubbished the Which? survey, which he said was based on only a small customer sample.

"With alarming regularity and without taking on board comments we’ve made in previous years, the Which? Short-haul Airline Satisfaction Survey results are, once again, in stark contrast to the high levels of satisfaction our customers tell us about," he said.

"From our own survey – which is 75 times larger than the Which? report – our customer satisfaction scores 90 per cent for those rating their short-haul flight as either excellent or good for their holiday last summer.  In the Which? report, only 283 customers commented on Thomas Cook, but even more alarming is that the airline placed first received responses from only 59 people.

"It’s also impossible to see how this survey offers consumers a like-for-like comparison when Which? is comparing airlines with completely different product offerings that appeal to completely different customers. If Mrs Smith wants to fly with her family to Spain, a smaller scheduled airline with restricted flying programme is not going to be able to help her.

 "Unlike scheduled airlines, for most of our customers, our flights form part of their package holiday with us. An important factor is about getting them to their holiday destination on time – we frequently score highly (even in the Which? survey)  and we came second in the CAA’s on time performance table last year, and expect to perform similarly well when the new report is out."

Thomson Airways was in 14^th position out of a total 16 airlines, having scored  45%, and Monarch was 13^th with 47%.

A spokesman for Monarch said the airline’s expanded summer 2013 programme would be supported by a series of strong customer service and product initiatives.

No UK airline came even close to the top of the table, which was compiled following a survey of 5,622 passengers. The highest placed was British Airways in sixth position, having scored a customer satisfaction rating of 67%.

Swiss topped the table for the second consecutive year with a score of  82%, closely followed by Turkish Airlines with 78%. Lufthansa came third with 75% and Aer Lingus fourth with 74%.

Ryanair scored particularly badly for its baggage allowance, boarding arrangements, seating allocation, food and drinks, with only a one-star satisfaction rating in each of these categories.

Typically, Ryanair appeared unshaken by the poor customer feedback. A spokesman said: "Ryanair passengers are far too busy flying all over Europe on our low fares to fill in silly surveys, which is why these surveys are only ever completed by BA fan-club members who are at home saving for outrageously expensive BA flights, which they can only afford to travel on once a year."

By Linsey McNeill