Dive Brief:
- Customer satisfaction with airline travel has hit an all-time high, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index Travel Study released last week. The ACSI gave airline customer satisfaction a 77 on a 100-point scale, a 1% improvement year over year.
- Ease of making a reservation, quality and reliability of mobile apps, and ease of check-in process were leading factors in high satisfaction.
- “Airline customer satisfaction has climbed to new heights, reaching scores not seen even before the pandemic disrupted travel,” Forrest Morgeson, associate professor of marketing at Michigan State University and director of research emeritus at ACSI, said in a prepared statement. “Carriers have bounced back strongly, showing that innovations and service improvements implemented during the last two years have resonated with customers.”
Dive Insight:
Staffing can have a direct impact on customer satisfaction. ACSI found that satisfaction with check-in and boarding, cabin cleanliness, and flight crew courtesy and helpfulness — all customer experience factors impacted by staff — grew year over year.
Airline staffing levels have grown since the pandemic, reaching the highest level in over two decades last year, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
The ACSI’s findings are in line with Deloitte Digital’s TrustID index, which found airlines’ trust scores increased by about 20% from 2022 to 2024, according to Ashley Reichheld, a principal at Deloitte Digital and the customer and marketing practice leader for the consumer industry.
“Three of the four factors of why airlines are doing well have to do with employees,” Reichheld said. “So it's because they value and respect everybody regardless of background, they make it easy to get customer support, and they're taking care of employees.”
Deloitte found a direct relationship between airline employees and customer trust. An analysis of the best places to work found that highly ranked workplaces experienced a 23% increase in customer trust.
“Airlines have done a better job with the employee end of things, and we're seeing that pay dividends for current customers,” Reichheld said.
