Southwest Airlines, Alaska Airlines, and JetBlue Earn Top Customer Experience Ratings for Airlines

June 1, 2016 Leave a comment

Temkin Experience Ratings

We recently released the 2016 Temkin Experience Ratings that ranks the customer experience of 294 companies across 20 industries based on a survey of 10,000 U.S. consumers.

Southwest Airlines, Alaska Airlines, and JetBlue Airlines deliver the best customer experience in the airline industry, according to the 2016 Temkin Experience Ratings, an annual customer experience ranking of companies based on a survey of 10,000 U.S. consumers.

Southwest Airlines took the top spot out of nine airlines in this year’s ratings, earning a score of 75% and coming in 52nd place overall out of 294 companies across 20 industries. Alaska Airlines and JetBlue Airlines tied for second place, each with a rating of 62% and an overall rank of 135th.

Southwest has earned the highest score every year since the Ratings began in 2011, with the exception of 2015 when JetBlue shot up 15 percentage points to take first. This year, however, JetBlue’s score decreased the most of any of the nine airlines evaluated, dropping 13 percentage points from 2015.

At the other end of the spectrum, Spirit Airlines received the lowest score in the industry with a rating of 40%, which put it in 284th place overall. US Airways was the only other airline to get a “very poor” rating (below 50%).

1605_Airlines_Rank

Overall, the airlines industry averaged a 56% rating in the 2016 Temkin Experience Ratings and tied for 12th place out of 20 industries. The average rating of the industry decreased by seven percentage points between 2015 and 2016, dropping from 63% to 56%.

Here are some additional findings from the airline industry:

  • The ratings of all airlines in the 2016 Temkin Experience Ratings are as follows: Southwest Airlines (67%), Alaska Airlines (62%), JetBlue Airlines (62%), Delta Airlines (59%), Virgin America (55%), American Airlines (52%), United Airlines (51%), US Airways (48%), and Spirit Airlines (40%).
  • No airline improved its score between 2015 and 2016.
  • JetBlue Airlines (-13 points) and Delta Airlines (-10 points) declined by the most percentage points between 2015 and 2016.

1605_Airlines_IndustryAv 1605_Airlines_Overall

Filed under 2016 Temkin Ratings, Customer experience Tagged with , , , , , , , ,

About Bruce Temkin, CCXP
I'm an experience (XM) management catalyst; helping organizations improve results by engaging the hearts and minds of their employees, customers, and partners. I enjoy researching and speaking about these topics. I lead the Qualtrics XM Institute, which is the world's best job. We're igniting a global community of XM Professionals who are inspired and empowered to radically improve the human experience. To achieve this goal, my team focuses on thought leadership, training, and community building. My work is driven by a set of fundamental beliefs: 1) Everything starts and ends with human beings, so you need to understand how people think, feel, and behave; 2) XM is a discipline that needs to be woven throughout an organization's entire operating fabric; and 3) Building the XM discipline requires a combination of culture, competency, and technology.

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