Airport satisfaction survey results

By Don Sadler

If you fly frequently as part of your job, then you’ll be interested in the results of the J.D. Power and Associates 2010 North America Airport Satisfaction Survey, which were released on February 18.

Want to venture a guess as to which airports ranked highest in overall passenger satisfaction? At the top of the list were Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County (DTW) among large airports, Kansas City International (MCI) among medium-sized airports and Indianapolis International (IND) among small airports.

The survey revealed that passengers remain less satisfied with their airport experiences than they are with other aspects of travel. This isn’t really too surprising given all of the new security procedures put in place in recent years. Overall passenger satisfaction with airports ranked 690 on a 1,000 point scale, which doesn’t look too bad until you compare it with hotels at 756 and even rental cars at 733.

On the positive side, passengers seem to appreciate technological advances that have helped improve the airport experience, like wireless Internet access, online check-in and parking lot management systems. But they consider these things “nice-to-haves,” not “gotta-haves.” In the areas that passengers consider to be most important — speed of baggage delivery, ease of baggage check, comfort in airport terminals and security checks — most airports still fall woefully short.

“As much as Internet access may be a fun diversion or enable productivity for passengers, getting passengers in and out of the airport easily and efficiently is of utmost importance,” notes Stuart Greif, vice president and general manager of the global hospitality and travel practice at J.D. Power and Associates.

Things promise to get even more interesting at the airport in light of the TSA’s most recent announcement that agents will soon begin conducting random “hand screenings” of passengers. Roving inspectors will take chemical swab samples from travelers’ hands to try to detect signs of explosive they might have come in contact with.

Experts say this is more fallout from the attempt of the so-called “underwear bomber” to blow up a Detroit-bound Delta flight on Christmas day two months ago. It’s the same swab test the TSA currently performs on hand luggage pulled aside for secondary screening.

The hand swabs were recently tested at five different airports in and around security checkpoint areas. While it only takes a few seconds to perform, it’s one more thing travelers will need to get used to in the post-“undie-bomber” world we now live in.