AIRLINES GET A GOOD GRADE FROM MOST PASSENGERS
Sep 20th, 1999 • Posted in: Research ReportFrom the Gallup News Service:
“The majority of American commercial airline passengers say that they are satisfied with the job the country’s major airlines are doing, and only about a third say that they are enjoying flying less today than in the past. Passengers’ biggest complaints focus on the practical aspects of flying, including legroom and seat width, in-flight food, and the price of tickets, in particular. At the same time, about a third of passengers say that they at least occasionally have felt a sense of rage at the airlines or airline employees, including almost half of passengers who fly five times a year or more. . . . “In general, passengers have somewhat mixed, but on balance positive, attitudes about the airline industry. Two-thirds say they are satisfied, while about a third say they are dissatisfied with the job the airlines are doing. Very frequent fliers, defined as those who have flown five or more times over the past year, are a little more negative than are less frequent fliers, but not by much. . . . “There has been a good deal of discussion revolving around the perception that flying has become much less pleasurable in recent years. During this time, flight loads have increased and airlines have cut back on food service and have attempted to squeeze more people into already crowded cabins in order to increase profitability. But the majority of passengers say that their flying experiences either are no different in recent years from what they have been in the past, or have actually gotten better. Only 29 percent of fliers say that they are enjoying flying less than they did a few years ago (10 percent are actually enjoying it more). Frequent fliers are somewhat more likely than less frequent fliers to say they are enjoying flying less. . . . “The top five flying dissatisfiers revolve around very practical matters: legroom (the top complaint of all, with only one-quarter of fliers saying they are satisfied with the distance between their knees and the seat in front of them), food, the price of the ticket, the width of the seat, and parking at the airport. “At the other end of the spectrum, passengers are most pleased with two of the more intangible elements of the flying experience: the courtesy of the flight attendants and that of the gate agents. Other highly rated aspects of flying include the ticketing process, the airports themselves, and the schedules. Two aspects of the physical layout of the planes also receive high marks from passengers: the overhead storage compartments and the number of rest rooms per plane. “The attitudes of very frequent fliers — those who fly five or more times a year — are important to the airlines because this group controls a significant percentage of all seats taken on flights in a given year. There are four dimensions that less than half of these passengers rate as satisfactory: legroom, food, seat width, and ticket price. . . . “Some of the recent focus in the airline industry has been on the apparent increase in instances in which passengers become so enraged that they disrupt airports and airplane flights and in some situations pose actual physical threats to airline employees and fellow passengers. The poll indicates that there is some room for concern on this front. Almost half of all very frequent fliers say that they either occasionally or frequently ‘personally felt a sense of rage at the airlines or airline employees’ when flying. Eleven percent of very frequent fliers have felt personally threatened by other passengers. . . .”
