A new study by marketing firm J.D. Power has found that passengers aren’t that impressed with services provided by Canada’s top two airlines, Air Canada and WestJet.
The study incorporated responses from 10,348 business and vacation travellers who’d flown on major airlines across North America between March 2015 and March 2016. The scoring considered factors such as check-in, type of aircraft, costs and flight crew and was based on a 1,000-point scale.
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Ranking top among the traditional air carriers was Alaska Airlines with a ranking of 751, with Delta coming in second at 725.
Air Canada beat out United Airlines for the bottom spot with a score of 681 (United scored 675).
When it came to low-cost airlines, JetBlue Airways took the top spot with a score of 790, beating out Southwest Airlines which scored 789.
The lowest ranked airline in the category was U.S. carrier Frontier Airlines with a score of 662. WestJet was second in airline satisfaction with a score of 723.
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While customer satisfaction may be low for both Canadian carriers, overall the news was good for the airline industry with overall airline satisfaction in North America jumping to a 10-year high.
J.D. Power believes that numerous factors have contributed to increased passenger satisfaction.
“Airlines are making positive strides by adding value to its products and services with newer and cleaner planes, better in-flight services, improving on-time arrivals and bumping fewer passengers from their flights,” said Rick Garlck, global travel and hospitality lead at J.D. Power. “For airlines ranking below the study average, investing in product and service improvements now may reap big rewards in the future when it comes to retention, reputation and share of wallet.”
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