Alaska, Continental, JetBlue top annual rankings

J.D. Power and Associates has come out with its annual study of North American airline customer satisfaction – or these days, maybe they should say dissatisfaction – and found that flyers’ unhappiness has reached its worst level in three years. And the biggest problem, the study found, is not with things like higher fares and all those new fees and charges, but rather with the way passengers are treated by airline employees. “Satisfaction with ‘people’ factors – including knowledge, courtesy and helpfulness of reservation and gate agents, check-in staff and flight crew – has declined dramatically since 2007, and is the leading contributing factor to the overall decline in customer satisfaction with airlines in 2008,” J.D. Power said. The company said that the deteriorating treatment of customers by airline employees probably results from airlines reducing staff. Passengers have noticed that “performance and attitudes of airline staff are suffering,” said J.D.Powers executive Sam Thanawalla. “In this unstable industry environment, it is critical that airlines invest in their employees as a means to enhance the customer experience, as there is a strong connection between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction.”

As for rankings of individual airlines, the highest levels of customer satisfaction among the eight traditional network carriers were at Alaska Airlines and Continental Airlines, which tied for first place. Continental has had the number-one ranking for the past three years, J.D. Power noted. The lowest ranking for customer satisfaction among these airliners was also a tie, between United and Northwest. Among four leading low-cost carriers, JetBlue ranked highest in customer satisfaction for the fourth consecutive year, followed by Southwest, Frontier, and at the bottom, AirTran. Of all the airlines in the study, only Alaska Airlines and Air Canada had higher customer satisfaction scores in 2008 than in 2007.