The greatest and worst airways for 2024 named by Which?

British Airways was as soon as so assured of its status, it used ‘the world’s favorite airline’ in its promoting campaigns.

But the UK’s flag-carrier has been voted among the many worst airways for each lengthy and brief haul journey.

Consumer champion Which? surveyed travellers’ experiences of flying previously 12 months and analysed outcomes from over 10,000 flights.

Once among the many nation’s main airways, BA got here within the backside 5 for brief haul flights – beneath various low-cost carriers together with easyJet, and within the backside three for lengthy haul.

Punctuality and cancellations had been a specific concern, with 3.3 per cent of its flights cancelled at brief discover, in response to CAA information.

From 1983 to 2001, BA primarily based its promoting round its declare that it was the ‘world’s favorite airline’. However, it has since fallen out of favour.

Aviation skilled Alex McWhirter instructed The Mail: ‘BA has had to cut back on standards in order to compete with low-cost carriers. If it wants to go back to the good old days of food and drink service on board it will have to increase prices but customers won’t pay these costs.

‘Because of the image cultivated over the years, people expect more from a national carrier like BA, but these days they’re upset.’

The airline suffered a serious IT failure in May 2017 and once more in March 2022, inflicting dozens of flights to be grounded.

At the time, BA’s chief government Sean Doyle apologised to workers, saying: ‘Many of our customers are rightly fed up. I know you’re additionally fed up and I’m as annoyed as you’re with a few of the issues we’ve needed to cope with.’

In the Which? survey, passengers rated airways on seven standards, together with customer support, worth for cash, seat consolation and foods and drinks. A buyer rating was calculated primarily based on total satisfaction and chance to advocate.

Wizz Air completed backside, marking its second consecutive 12 months on the backside of the survey, with clients complaining about delays and poor customer support.

Alarmingly, nearly half (46 per cent) of these surveyed who flew with Wizz Air reported points with their flight, with delays a very widespread concern.

According to Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) information, 63 per cent of the airline’s flights had been on time within the final 12 months. Around 2 per cent of its flights had been delayed by over three hours – increased than most of its rivals.

The Hungarian airline acquired low star scores throughout the board, scoring only one star out of a attainable 5 for customer support.

One respondent reported it was ‘impossible to communicate with the airline’ about their flight cancellation, whereas one other mentioned that Wizz Air was ‘extremely unhelpful and unresponsive’ after they wanted help.

Close behind Wizz Air was Ryanair.

The Irish airline scored only one star for seat consolation, foods and drinks and customer support. In the latter class, respondents had been notably important, with one passenger saying the airline ‘treats customers with disdain’.

Jet2, in the meantime, took first spot amongst brief haul airways for the third consecutive 12 months. The airline topped the desk with a formidable buyer rating of 81 per cent, and acquired a full 5 stars for its customer support.

Its passengers reported a largely hassle-free flying expertise, with 80 per cent of respondents who flew with Jet2 reporting no issues. Of those that skilled a maintain as much as their flight, 84 per cent reported that workers had been useful through the delay.

Jet2 additionally has among the many lowest charge of last-minute cancellations of any airways within the survey, with simply 0.5 per cent cancelled at brief discover, in response to CAA information.

In joint second for brief haul flights, with a buyer rating of 74 per cent, was Norwegian and Icelandair. The carriers climbed a formidable 4 and 5 locations respectively from final 12 months. 

Which?’s newest airways survey comes as fares hit report highs within the final 12 months and plenty of airways posted substantial earnings following the challenges of the pandemic.

According to the Office for National Statistics, common UK airfares had been as a lot as £713 final summer season – and for these costs, clients ought to be seeing wonderful service throughout the board.

Rory Boland, editor of Which? Travel, mentioned: ‘Air fares have soared in recent years, and the bare minimum passengers should expect in return for their hard-earned cash is a reliable service, with friendly, easy to access customer support when they are let down.

‘While the likes of Jet2 continue to excel in this regard, our survey shows that passengers of many airlines are sadly being shortchanged – with high rates of last minute cancellations, abysmal customer service and sneaky extra fees for luggage hiking up the final price.’

A Wizz Air spokesperson mentioned: ‘We do not consider the findings of this report to be representative or an accurate reflection of our performance today, which is among the strongest in Europe.

‘We have been honest about our performance in summer 2022, which was not up to our standards.

‘We have invested more than £90 million to rectify this and have made significant improvements which the results of this survey fail to recognise, but are evident from independent data, as well as our own.’

A spokesperson for British Airways mentioned: ‘We at all times work arduous to get our clients to the place they have to be on time.

‘Like all airways although, during the last 12 months we’ve skilled a number of elements exterior of our management which have had an hostile affect on our clients, equivalent to hostile climate and Air Traffic Control industrial motion.

‘We apologise to clients for any disruption they’ve confronted.’

A spokesperson for Ryanair mentioned: ‘Ryanair has industry leading punctuality with avg. on-time performance of 87 per cent in 2023, despite UK punctuality being severely impacted by the inefficient NATS and its incompetent CEO, whose ATC system has collapsed twice this year delaying thousands of flights and millions of passengers travelling to/from the UK.’