While the airline industry grapples with the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, satisfaction over air travel among passengers has reached record highs, according to a new report.
The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) found in a special report on travel during the health crisis that reviews of airlines by customers have surpassed pre-pandemic levels.
Air travel received an ACSI score of 76 out of 100 in the latest survey, up from its previous score of 75 for the period of April 2019 to March 2020.
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The ASCI wrote in its report that although fewer passengers and less-crowded flights can be attributed to the uptick in scores for air travel, satisfaction for the industry has risen over the past two years.
Passengers were most satisfied with Southwest Airlines, which scored an 80. Delta Air Lines came in second, scoring 79, while Alaska Airlines followed in third, at 78.
Airlines were the only travel industry in the report that saw an improvement for customer satisfaction. Other industries included in the survey were hotels, internet travel services and rental cars.
The hospitality industry scored a 74, dropping from its pre-pandemic score of 78. Hilton, which leads the industry in customer satisfaction, saw its ACSI score drop to 79 from 82.
User satisfaction with internet travel services such as Expedia and TripAdvisor dropped to an all-time low of 73. Meanwhile, satisfaction with the car rental industry largely went unchanged, maintaining its score of 76.
The ACSI report was based on interviews with 4,642 customers from April 1 to Sept. 30.