Dive Brief:
- Customers are still enjoying airport experiences despite record numbers of travelers and rising costs, according to a J.D. Power survey of 26,000 residents from the U.S. and Canada released Wednesday. Three in 5 customers said they enjoyed airport experiences.
- Customer spending is down, however, as a result of inflationary pressures. Passengers spent $3.53 less per person on average this year in comparison to last year, according to the study.
- “An overwhelming number of passengers in the airport at one time tends to lower satisfaction, but airports are doing a better job, over the long term, providing people things to do while they're in the airport,” Michael Taylor, managing director of travel, hospitality and retail at J.D. Power, told CX Dive.
Dive Insight:
Airports have been working to expand their offerings over the years, and customer satisfaction has grown in kind.
“A lot of it has to do with food, beverage and retail. A lot of it has to do with enhanced Wi-Fi,” Taylor said. “People feel like they're not being trapped in a box.”
Airports that scored highly, like Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport, also provide travelers a shopping experience akin to traditional retail spaces.
“One of the things we've noticed over the years is that you know that you want to get the feeling that you're actually in a mall rather than at the airport,” Taylor said.
Despite such improvements, customers are spending less.
“There's more people, so there's more business, but people are actually spending less per person, simply because we live in an inflationary time unfortunately,” Taylor said. “That's having an effect on individual demands for food, beverage and retail at the airport.”
In previous years, the quality of the food was the driving factor for making purchases, with consumers accepting the higher prices as a necessary part of airport travel.
But the quality hasn’t declined, and more respondents indicated that the price is determining whether they buy something to eat in the airport, Taylor said.
Airport satisfaction can also drive revenue. There's a high correlation between the amount of money that people spend on the airport and how much they like the airport.
People who give the second lowest score for their satisfaction with airports spend on average $25.72 a person at the airport. If they think the airport is “perfect,” they're spending $42.49 — $17 more per person, according to Taylor.
“Just getting people to move up that scale, it's going to make you an awful lot of money,” Taylor said.
Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport, John Wayne Airport, Orange County, and Indianapolis International Airport ranked the highest for customer satisfaction among mega, large and medium-sized airports, respectively.
