The current Covid-19 outbreak has had a devastating impact on the travel industry.
According to flight data specialists OAG, there is now a 64% reduction in flight schedules based on the previous year, due to the current travel restrictions in place. Airlines have been left facing majorly reduced capacity, with OAG reporting that almost 75% of our global flight capacity was cut over the course of fourteen weeks.
It is completely unknown at this time when travel will be able to return to normal, and what the long-lasting impact of the virus will be on the aviation industry, though the OAG are looking at tentative signs of some recovery, with this week’s most recent data showing a 2% recovery on the previous weeks’ capacity volumes.
At this time, with so much uncertainty around travel, consumer trust has never been more important for aviation and travel brands.
Our newly released Airline Trust Index ranks the most and least trusted airlines around the world by analysing factors including on-time performance, customer experience and service, inclusions and allowances, and brand engagement with the airline from the public.
We scoured data for over 80 of the top airlines from around the world, to rank the most, and the least trusted airlines.
Coming out in the top spot as the most trusted airline was Japanese operator All Nippon Airways (ANA).
Read on below for the full details of the results and research.
Results:
Ranking in top place as the most trusted airline is Japanese outfit All Nippon Airways (ANA).
The airline took the crown after raking up an impressive Trust Score of 27, out of a possible 30 available.
ANA scored highly across all categories, with a 5 across On-Time Performance; Customer Reviews; Staff Service, and Free Seating Allowance.
The airline has an OTP of 85.2, which places them in 12th place on the OAG star ratings report which we used to compile the OTP scores.
All Nippon Airways are popular with Skytrax users, receiving the highest possible 5 out of 5 for customer service on the airline review site. ANA also offers free seat selection for their standard seats.
ANA were slightly let down by their included luggage allowance, which at 33KG is certainly generous enough but not quite as high as some other airlines, including second place Qatar Airways and third place Japan Airlines.
Social media following for ANA was also slightly lower than some larger global airlines, but they still notched up a combined following of over 2.5 million across their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts.
Second place Qatar Airways didn’t only score well for baggage allowance. The airline also boasts an impressive OTP of 82.5, which scored them 5 for this category. Qatar also scored high for customer review and staff service.
In third place interestingly is another Japanese company – Japan Airlines. Their OTP was lower than ANA but still impressive at 84.3, while they offer a very generous baggage allowance of 56KG and no charge for seat selection.
At the bottom end of the scale is low-cost Canadian airline, Sunwing Airlines Inc, who had the worst OTP of 57.8 – scoring them a measly 1 in this category. The limited baggage allowance also gave a score of 1, while customer review and staff service each scored just 2. The airline also charges for seat selection.
Also ranking towards the bottom are Intercaribbean Airways Ltd, Czech Airlines and Sun Country Airlines.
Methodology
To compile the Airline Trust Index we analysed the following factors for each airline:
- On-Time Performance (OTP)
- Customer Satisfaction Reviews (Review)
- Staff Service (Staff)
- Included Baggage Allowance (Bags)
- Free Seat Selection (Free Seat)
- Social Media Following (Social Media)
We used the most up-to-date OTP Report from air travel data specialists and authority OAG.
Customer satisfaction reviews and staff service insights were taken from popular airline review service Skytrax, while baggage and seat inclusion and social media engagement were derived from each airlines’ own website and social media channels. Included luggage and free seat allowance were based on those flying with the lowest class ticket.
Across each of these 5 categories we scored each airline out of 5, with 5 being the highest. We totalled the scores across each category to get the final Trust Score for each airline, with the highest total of 30 available. We then ranked the airlines by their Trust Score to create our final ranking result.
Notes on data:
*Where relevant data was not available for an airline this was not included in our analysis, this was the case for Ryanair and Wizz Air who do not feature on the report due to a lack of necessary data.
*Where airlines only allow a ‘personal item’ bag with no stated weight this was classed as 0 free luggage allowance, as this is not deemed an appropriate level of luggage, the customer will most likely have to pay for additional luggage.
*Where cabin baggage allowance max weight was not stated this was set as 23KG which was deemed an industry-standard max weight cabin baggage allowance.
Full data is available upon request.
Sources:
- https://www.oag.com/on-time-performance-airline-airport-star-ratings
- https://www.airlinequality.com/
- https://www.facebook.com/
- https://twitter.com/
- https://www.instagram.com/
Individual airlines’ websites (full list available upon request)
Colibra 
