Discount carriers Spirit Airlines and Frontier Airlines, once slated as merger partners, each stepped up their game in serving customers but remained at the underside of an annual customer satisfaction survey for 2023-24, a national research firm said.
Despite recording more improvement points than some other airline, South Florida-based Spirit ranked last within the annual American Customer Satisfaction Index Travel Study by CFI Group of Ann Arbor, Michigan. The study, released Tuesday, assessed the performance of not only the country's major airlines, but in addition hotels, automobile rental corporations, ride-hailing services and online travel services.
Overall, all industry segments serving travelers showed improvements within the eyes of consumers, a lot of whom are still able to travel despite rising prices and inflation.
As a part of the survey, travelers rated airlines on several service metrics, including baggage handling, boarding process, call center, cleanliness of aircraft cabins and restrooms, and quality of food (each paid and free). loyalty programs, mobile apps, luggage racks, seating comfort and staff performance at airport gates and ticket counters.
The percentage of respondents who said that they had complained decreased year-over-year: 26% of business travel respondents said that they had filed a grievance in 2024, down from 48% in 2023. Of the leisure travelers surveyed, only 13 said so % said that they had complained about it 17% last 12 months.
“Airline customer satisfaction has risen to new levels, reaching levels not even seen before the pandemic disrupted travel,” said Forrest Morgeson, associate professor of promoting at Michigan State University and research director emeritus at ACSI, in an announcement. “Mobile operators have recovered strongly, showing that the innovations and service improvements implemented over the last two years have resonated with customers.”
The index was created on the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business in collaboration with other organizations, including CFI, which now conducts the survey. It isn’t any longer affiliated with the university.
Alaska Airlines, during which a door plug flew out of considered one of his planes during a flight over the Pacific Northwest in January, topped the survey for the second consecutive 12 months, followed by American Airlines.
Discounters register improvements
Among discount airlines, Allegiant, Frontier and Spirit had the most important gains within the survey “as they enhance their value propositions,” the organization said in its statement.
Asked for further details, a CFI spokeswoman said the three airlines “have achieved improved results this year in flight experience metrics such as check-in/boarding, in-flight services, travel planning and staffing.”
“Now that legacy airlines have charged so many fees for seat selection and baggage, low-cost airline customers may perceive a greater value proposition,” she said.
Las Vegas-based Allegiant was followed in descending order by Southwest Airlines, Delta Air Lines, JetBlue Airways, United Airlines, unidentified airlines within the “All Others” category, then Denver-based Frontier and South Florida-based Spirit.
Spirit, which is moving to a brand new headquarters complex in Dania Beach, didn’t immediately reply to an emailed request for comment.
The airline is emerging from a lengthy turbulent period highlighted by two failed merger deals Recall from an engine manufacturer As a result, 20 of the greater than 200 aircraft remained on the bottom.
At a ceremonial opening of the headquarters Last week, Ted Christie, CEO and president, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel the corporate was desirous to start communicating about what it desires to do for its customers.
“We have listened to what our guests have told us over the years. We listened to what the markets were saying,” he said. “And we haven't had a chance to tell our story and tease what's going to happen next, and we're going to take that opportunity.”
Christie didn’t elaborate. But before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the airline took initiatives to indicate that it wanted higher relationships with its customers. The airline modernized its fleet, installing seats with more legroom and upgrading technology to extend schedule reliability.
More recently, the airline ranked in the highest quadrant of the U.S. Department of Transportation's monthly on-time scorecards. For example, in January this 12 months, the corporate ranked fourth in the general share of reported flights that arrived on time, at 72.5%, based on the department.
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