Customer survey finds US airlines' services to be unsatisfactory

22 May 2008

At a time when fuel and other costs are causing airlines to charge more than ever, American airline passengers say they are less satisfied with airlines' customer service, according to a new survey.

An annual airline survey released on Tuesday by the Ross School of Business of the University of Michigan found that passengers have given airlines their worst grades since 2001. Overall, the industry's scores fell for a third straight year.

The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) rates customer satisfaction with products and services. The airline industry's score was a 62, barely above the historic low of 61 in 2001, and the lowest among 43 ranked industries. The survey is based on the responses of 26,000 people in the first quarter of 2008, and ranks industries on a scale of 1 to 100 for customer satisfaction.

The all-time low ranking for the airline industry in 2001 followed the posting of a 2000 on-time arrival rate of 72.5 per cent, the worst in the 11 years for which department of transportation statistics are available. The 2008 ranking, the second lowest, follows a year when airlines posted a 73.4 per cent on-time arrival rate, also the second lowest. Thus, one can see a clear co-relation between on-time arrivals and customer satisfaction.

United Airlines and US Airways Group Inc., which are in talks to potentially combine into a single carrier, finished next-to-last and last, respectively. Continental Airlines Inc. and US Airways Group Inc. registered the biggest declines from 2007, both experiencing double-digit percentage drops. Southwest Airlines, who increased their rating from 76 to 79 this year, topped the list. This was its 15th straight year at the top position.

After Southwest came a huge drop in customer satisfaction, with scores of 62 at AMR Corp.'s American Airlines and Continental. Delta Air Lines Inc. scored 60, and Northwest Airlines Corp. slipped to 57 from 61 in 2007. US Airways' score dropped to 54 from 61 a year ago, taking over the bottom spot from United, whose score held at 56.