Spain and Portugal for Visitors

Posted by : John Ross on Jun 26, 2008 - 10:36 AM airtravel

UK consumer magazine Which? has published its yearly Best Airlines report, the result of a postal survey of Which? members - the magazine says that 30,000 of them responded. Top-rated among the short-haul airlines was Bournemouth-based Palmair, closely followed by Germanwings, while the best long-haulers were oriental - Singapore Airlines, followed by India's Jet Airways. One of the nice things about the Which? report is that it lets us see which are the worst airlines as well, and this year Spain's Iberia is outstandingly badly rated, being third from the bottom on the list of short-haul airlines, and the uncontested worst long-haul airline, with a miserable Customer Satisfaction Score 27%, compared with the 32% of its nearest challenger for duffest llong-distance airline, Air India. Only Thomas Cook Airlines looks anything like as unpopular as Iberia.

The Which? survey needs to be seen in perspective. It is inevitably UK-centred, given its survey "universe," and is only concerned with customer satisfaction, so if you want to compare more objective data such as delays, accident rates, you need to look elsewhere. But Which covers its ground with care, and its claim that the survey is the "UK’s largest independent measure of passenger satisfaction" is not unreasonable. Presumibly because they are more likely to have paid for their own tickets, Which? begins by only being interested in those who have travelled for personal rather than business reasons. It then asks for an overall estimation of the airline, and whether the survey respondent would recommend it or not, and invites specific ratings of different aspects of airline operation - check-in, cabin staff , comfort, food and entertainment and so on.

Most of the aiirlines covered have kept silence, at least for the moment, but Ryanair has reacted with its customary belligerent publicity-seeking again. In all fairness, I must say that it has some justification for being provoked. In its report (at least in its online version), Which? does seem to pick on Ryanair, rightly pointing out that it scores very poorly for Cleanliness, but unnecessarily singling it out as failing to get top marks for Value for Money. The Irish low-cost carrier has responded with its usual yah-boo-sucks petulance, with a statement byDaniel de Carvalho saying "If you want to buy a useless magazine with no insight whatsoever into air travel, then we strongly recommend “Which” – whose annual loony member survey is about as useful as a baggage tag in Terminal 5.”

Below are the customer satisfaction scores and value for money ratings (on a scale of 1-5) for the different short-haul and long-haul airlines.

Short-haul airlines
	Value for money		Customer satisfaction score
Palmair	*****		80%
Germanwings	*****		78%
Air Berlin	*****		76%
Aurigny	****		72%
Austrian Airlines	*****		72%
Wizz Air	*****		69%
Swiss	****		67%
Lufthansa	****		64%
Aer-Lingus	****		63%
Air Malta	****		61%
Cyprus Airways	***		61%
Jet2.com	****		61%
Easyjet	****		59%
FlyBe	***		59%
SAS Scandinavian Airlines	***		59%
KLM	***		59%
bmiBaby	****		58%
Czech Airlines	****		58%
Icelandair	****		58%
GB Airways	****		57%
Turkish Airlines	***		56%
Croatia Airlines	***		55%
Olympic Airways	***		55%
bmi (BritishMidland)	***		55%
British Airways	***		55%
BA Connect / Connect Plus	***		54%
Fly Globespan	***		53%
Egyptair	**		51%
Air France	**		51%
Cathay Pacific	**		48%
Ryanair	****		47%
TAP Air Portugal	**		47%
Astraeus	**		46%
XL Airways	**		43%
Air Europa	**		42%
First Choice Airways	**		42%
Cyprus Turkish Airlines	*		39%
MyTravel Airlines	*		39%
Iberia	*		38%
Alitalia	*		37%
Thomas Cook Airlines	*		37%

Long-haul airlines
	Value for money		Customer satisfaction score
Singapore Airlines	*****		85%
Jet Airways	*****		84%
Air New Zealand	*****		80%
El Al	****		75%
Emirates	****		75%
Qatar	*****		75%
Etihad	*****		70%
bmi (British Midland)	****		70%
Eva Air	****		69%
Malaysia Airlines	****		68%
Zoom Airlines	****		68%
Thai Airways International	****		66%
Virgin Atlantic	***		66%
Sri Lankan Airlines	***		63%
KLM	***		63%
First Choice Airways	****		60%
Air Canada	***		57%
Continental Airlines	***		57%
Delta Airlines	***		57%
Kenya Airways	***		57%
British Airways	***		57%
Cathay Pacific	***		57%
Lufthansa	***		57%
Northwest Airlines	***		56%
Qantas	***		56%
BA Connect / Connect Plus	***		54%
Air France	***		53%
American Airlines	***		52%
Thomsonfly	***		52%
Gulf Air	**		50%
Soutd African Airways	**		49%
United Airlines	***		48%
Air China	***		47%
Air Transat	**		46%
Monarch Airlines	**		41%
US Airways	**		40%
XL Airways	**		40%
Fly Globespan	**		37%
MyTravel Airlines	**		35%
Thomas Cook Airlines	**		34%
Air India	*		32%
Iberia	*		27%

I'd be interestedi in your own experiences and thoughts, and I'd especially like you to tell me about other sources of information for this kind of airline quality comparison. If there were enough interest, I could set up a permanent poll to provide a permanent picture of how satisfaction with airlines is evolving.

More information:
Which? report on Best airlines