The International Air Transport Association (IATA) made a rating of leading European carriers for summer period. AEX.ru obtained the report, however, IATA did not publish it and declined to comment on the matter. Nevertheless figures and diagrams are quite useful. Aeroflot – Russian Airlines was ranked first in the “Overall passenger satisfaction” category. At that the carrier was ranked first in both business and economy classes (3,89 and 3, 72 out of 5,00 respectively), IA REGNUM reports.
The survey carried out by IATA covers a lot of factors: citizenship of the passengers, quality of service and in-flight meals, number of delayed flights, convenience of connections, information support provided to the passengers, etc. Passengers are asked to take part in the survey during boarding – after landing they may take part in the online-survey and express their opinion about the flight and the carrier.
KLM (3,64) was ranked second in the economy class rating; Finnair and EasyJet were ranked third. Air France (3,32) and Alitalia (3,14) were ranked last. Leadership of KLM came as a surprise, because the last survey’s top-3 carriers were as follows: Aeroflot, Finnair, EasyJet.
As for business class, Finnair (3,79) was ranked second and KLM (3,71) – third; Alitalia (3,35) and Air France (3,28) were last in this list. Compared to previous survey Aeroflot improved its score by 0,03 in both classes. The change was not significant, but every change matters when the carriers compete. The largest percent of unsatisfied passengers was recorded among passengers of an Italian airline. In fact Alitalia showed one of the worst results in all the categories: check-in, professionalism of the employees, work of the flight attendants, etc.
British Airways was named the most advanced airline in terms of Internet technologies. Most respondents voted for their system of online ticket booking. Finnair meets the expectations of its passengers, this carrier was ranked first in “Quality on the background of expectations”. According to IATA women prefer Alitalia (44%) or EasyJet (44%), Finnair (43%). Business travellers prefer Lufthansa (66%).
The IATA rating is made on the basis of mass surveys of passengers twice a year; it is one of the most important researches conducted among air carriers. The International non-governmental organization, IATA, coordinates and represents the interests of the air transport industry in such areas, as safety, flight operations, tariff policy, maintenance, security, development of international standards, etc.