US carriers are ‘hated’, says Cheapflights boss

Monday, 01 Dec, 2005 0

US carriers are despised by American travellers with service levels lagging well behind Europe and the UK, Cheapflights chief executive David Soskin has said.

And the internet boss, whose price comparison site operates in the UK and US, predicted not all will survive as they battle to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

“Airlines in the US are disarray,” said Soskin. “They are not the great national employers they once were and the poor old US taxpayer is subsidising them for tens of billion of dollars. There will be other failures.

“The US aviation industry trails behind the European market in many respects and have a reputation about a good as British Rail had in its heyday.

“They are hated by US travellers but they operate lots of aircraft on very popular routes.”

Soskin praised the customer service levels of JetBlue, recently ranked by Zagat as the second most favourite airline by US air travellers. Only Milwaukee-based airline Midwest managed to surpass the American low-cost leader.

Soskin said: “Other US carriers providing the service that travellers should be experiencing include Southwest and Continental – an airline that has shown how struggling airlines can successfully turn themselves around financially by putting their focus on customer service.”

Soskin added many US airlines have been slow to respond to the internet.

“They have only got to grips with it in the past year or two and some sites leave a lot to be desired.”

Report by Steve Jones



 



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