Air New Zealand has Australia’s highest customer satisfaction rates
The silver fern satisfies.
A report has found Air New Zealand to be the most customer-satisfying international airline operating in Australia with a satisfaction rating of 88.8%. It edged out Singapore Airlines (88.3%) and Emirates (87.3%) to take first place for customer satisfaction in the September 2017 Roy Morgan Airline Customer Satisfaction report.
Further down were Etihad (85.4%) and Cathay Pacific (84%) and Garuda Indonesia (82.2%).
Qantas was the highest rated Australian airline with an 80.2% satisfaction rating, well ahead of Virgin Australia's 74.9%.
With the exception of Air New Zealand which stayed put at 88.8%, most of the highest scores in the top ranks were found among the airlines that improved considerably over the last 12 months. Singapore Airlines, Etihad, Cathay Pacific, and British Airways all saw improvements of around 3%, while Thai Airways saw a substantial 5.2% jump in customer satisfaction.
The final Roy Morgan satisfaction ratings were based on customer surveys, so it just goes to show that travellers appreciate service improvements, and it makes a difference to their satisfaction. The problem might be that once an airline is at the top of customer satisfaction ratings, the only way to go is down.
"Although Qantas continues to perform strongly, the low customer satisfaction rate of wholly owned subsidiary Jetstar will continue to be a concern," said Michele Levine, CEO of Roy Morgan Research. "but the positive news for Jetstar is a marginal improvement for the budget airline in both categories over the past year."
These results also closely echo the outcomes of other surveys. The rate of complaints to the Airline Customer Advocate matches closely with these satisfaction rates.
And this isn't the first time Air New Zealand has been recognised as a top carrier.
Airlineratings.com named Air New Zealand as its number one top airline of 2018, with Qantas, Singapore Airlines, Virgin Australia, Virgin Atlantic and Etihad being number two to five in order.
Each new survey might name a slightly different best airline, but the same names keep rising to the top. Right now, that name looks like Air New Zealand.
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