Airline customer satisfaction climbed yet again in 2019, according to this year's J.D. Power North America Airline Satisfaction Study of nearly 6,000 passengers.
Overall satisfaction with airlines increased 11 points to 773 out of 1,000 points in 2019, continuing an eight-year trend of improvement, J.D. Power announced on Wednesday.
The study found that traditional carriers such as Alaska Airlines, Delta Air Lines and American Airlines were largely responsible for the rise, with the segment satisfaction score improving by a whopping 22 points from last year.
Alaska Airlines ranked highest among traditional carriers for the 12th straight year, receiving a score of 801 while Delta (788) and American (764) finished second and third, respectively.
Although overall satisfaction in the low-cost segment declined 6 points from 2018, JetBlue Airways (817) and Southwest Airlines (817) ranked highest for customer satisfaction in the budget category.
J.D. Power's research found that enhanced reservation and check-in experiences are pleasing air travelers the most as self-service kiosks and other technologies make it easier than ever to check in and print your boarding pass.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, in-flight services remain the biggest bugaboo for air travelers. According to J.D. Power, seatback entertainment, food service and Wi-Fi are still the lowest-ranked part of the passenger experience. However, it found fresh food, seatback games and live television to be the most impactful in-flight amenities in terms of customer satisfaction.
"Airlines continue to deliver on the operational side of air travel," said Michael Taylor, Travel Intelligence Lead at J.D. Power, in a statement. "New technology investments have dramatically improved the reservation and check-in process. Fleets are newer and travelers generally feel that they are getting great value for their money. These improvements have been most profound in the traditional carrier segment, where customer satisfaction has climbed considerably."
"While low-cost carriers have historically had the highest levels of customer satisfaction in our study, due to a strong sense of value for money among customers, that line is starting to blur as traditional carriers improve their services and operations," he added. "The one area where both traditional and low-cost carriers can still improve, however, is in in-flight services. It continues to be the lowest-ranked factor in the study, as many airlines still struggle with in-flight entertainment, connectivity, in-seat power and food service."
The results of J.D. Power's 2019 study are good news since Airlines for America (A4A) recently projected a record 257.4 million passengers to travel on U.S. airlines this summer, with an average of 2.8 million passengers per day expected to travel between June 1 and August 31.
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