A recent industry report suggested that the airline industry is improving, but it seems consumers don’t necessarily agree. The annual American Consumer Satisfaction Index is out with their annual report on the airline industry, and while passenger satisfaction is up a bit from last year, it’s still in the bottom third of all industries earning similar scores as hospitals and private utilities, with slightly higher marks than health insurers
Overall, customers rated JetBlue as the best airline with an ACSI score of 82, a 2% improvement over last year, with Southwest coming in second (80), followed by Alaska Airlines (78). The highest-ranking legacy airline is American and Delta, who tie for fourth with a 76.
The report, based on thousands of customer interviews conducted over 12 months, was completed well before United’s recent incident involving a passenger being dragged off a plane, yet the airline still has the worst customer satisfaction rating of all legacy airlines. It's also in the bottom three of all airlines, and let's face it, it isn't likely to get any better.
Airline Customer Satisfaction Rankings
1. JetBlue (82)2. Southwest (80)3. Alaska (78)4. American (76)4. Delta (76)6. All Others (71)7. Allegiant (70)8. United (70)9. Frontier (63)10. Spirit (61)