JD Power released its 2016 survey on airport satisfaction on Thursday and found that among 33 medium-sized airports in North America, Southwest Florida International Airport (RSW) was among the best.
Among a group of 33 mid-sized airports, Indianapolis had the highest rated airport, with RSW ranking third overall.
Cleveland-Hopkins coming in last place in customer satisfaction among medium airports.
In the large airport category, Portland, Ore. had the highest rated airport with New York's LaGuardia rated as the worst airport in customer satisfaction.
JD Power solicited responses from 38,931 customers to gather their opinion on six criteria: Terminal facilities; airport accessibility, security check; baggage claim; check-in/baggage check; and food, beverage and retail.
The survey found that overall satisfaction at major airports in the United States and Canada has improved since 2015.
“Many airports, especially the nation’s largest airports, were never built to handle the current volume of traveler traffic, often exceeding their design limits by many millions of travelers,” said Michael Taylor, director of the airport practice at J.D. Power. “Yet airports are overcoming infrastructure limits by affecting the things they can influence. Airports are successfully applying technology to improve check-in (+5 points year-over-year), security screening (+3 points) and the food, beverage and retail shopping (+10 points) experiences.”
On 1,000-point scale, Portland had 786 points compared to compared to 649 points for LaGuardia Airport. The average large airport had 724 customer satisfaction points.
Mid-sized airports did better on the survey. The average mid-sized airport had 760 points. Indianapolis had a rating of 794 points, compared to 704 points for Cleveland-Hopkins Airport.
Only five airports nationally scored below 700 points: LaGuardia, Newark Liberty, Philadelphia, Chicago O'Hare and Boston Logan.
Click here to see the complete survey.
