Passenger ratings for airlines revealed

A new survey of over 7,500 Which? members reveals this year’s best and worst performing short-haul and long-haul airlines, and shows passengers were underwhelmed with flag carrier British Airways’ customer experience.

Turkish Airlines came top of the short-haul survey with five star ratings for food and drink as well as seat comfort, achieving a customer score of 80%. Second place went to Aurigny Air Services and SAS Scandinavian Airlines finished third.

Ryanair finished third bottom in the table overall with a score of 50%, with only Iberia (49%) and Vueling Airlines (41%) achieving lower customer scores. Vueling were the only airline not to achieve a single three star rating in any category surveyed.

The results of Which?’s latest short-haul flight survey shows a decline in customer score and in star ratings across several categories for British Airways. BA has a value for money rating of just two stars in this year’s survey, but last year it received three stars. Additionally, in last year’s survey BA scored four out of five stars for food and drink, but it has scored just two stars this year.

Ryanair and Easyjet score even worse for food and drink in the short-haul survey, as both received scathing one star reviews from passengers.

The standout performer in this year’s long-haul survey was Singapore Airlines. The carrier, which flies from the UK to Singapore and the US, received a string of full marks across a range of categories, and was awarded five stars out of five for food and drink, in-flight entertainment and the cabin environment. Its overall customer score of 91% represents the highest mark for an economy class airline for eight years.

The top three long-haul airlines list is completed by Emirates and KLM, with all scoring at least three stars in every category. They also charge less than 1.5% for paying by credit card. In the last year several airlines have cut or removed credit card charges entirely and no airline can be a Which? Recommended Provider if they charge more than 1.5%.

For full details of the annual survey visit the Which? website.

 Rory Boland, editor of Which? Travel said:

“The results of our annual flight survey show that some of the big name airlines need to step up their game. Passengers have made it clear that a wide range of improvements are needed in both short-haul and long-haul, and the disappointing scores for the in-flight refreshments certainly provide food for thought for airlines.”

 -ENDS-

Notes to editors

  • The full results of the airline survey will be publically available on the Which? website from Thursday 15 December until Thursday 22 December

  • Which? Recommended Provider – No airline can be a Which? Recommended Provider if they charge more than 1.5%. That’s why in our short-haul survey Aurigny Air Services can’t be made a Which? Recommended Provider, despite gaining the second highest customer score. The airlines that did become recommended short-haul provider’s are Turkish Airlines, Scandinavian Airlines, Icelandair and Jet2.

Press Release: , , ,