UK airports passenger reviews

[TheLocalYokel]

A recent discussion developed on an LBA thread about the perception of that airport by the travelling public. One poster drew us to the attention of the poor reviews for the airport in Skytrax.

I and others pointed out that people more often than not are motivated to contribute to Skytrax and similar organs when they have a bad experience. Far fewer people tend to make their views known when an experience is a positive one, and this applies in life generally.

The old saying goes along the line that if you have a good experience you will tell someone; if you have a bad experience you will tell lots of people.

With this is mind I had a look at Skytrax and I found that the passenger reviews generally are far more damning than praising across most airports.

The top 20 UK airports score as follows:

Heathrow average score 4/10 from 1084 reviews.

Gatwick 5/10 from 366

Manchester 4/10 from 461

Stansted 3/10 from 447

Luton 3/10 from 340

Edinburgh 4/10 from 143

Birmingham 4/10 from 167

Glasgow 4/10 from 49

Bristol 3/10 from 203

East Midlands 4/10 from 74

Newcastle 5/10 from 98

Belfast Int 3/10 from 56

Liverpool 4/10 from 233

Aberdeen 3/10 from 43

London City 5/10 from 108

Leeds-Bradford 3/10 from 180

Belfast City 4/10 from 55

Southampton 4/10 from 53

Southend 7/10 from 29

Cardiff 4/10 from 43

A few more selected airports:

Prestwick 3/10 from 30

Doncaster-Sheffield 5/10 from 18

Exeter 5/10 from 21

Bournemouth 3/10 from 109

Norwich 3/10 from 41

Humberside 7/10 from 6

Inverness 4/10 from 9

Newquay 3/10 from 34

It will be seen that the overwhelming majority of scores are in the 3 to 4 out of 10 range with only Southend and Humberside getting to as high as 7/10 with the last one based on only 6 reviews, which might show that the inhabitants of that area are the exception that proves the rule that people only usually write to complain rather than to praise. :angel:

None of this pretends to be a scientific study of course, and it's all subjective (there are few if any UK airports that I've used that I'd score as low as 3 or 4 out of 10), but it does show that those passengers who do contribute to Skytrax seem to have a low opinion of the airport sector generally in this country.

 

[Aviador]

Great post TLY. Given the amount of negative reviews at most airports I wonder how the figures would look if you devide the number of reviews by the number of passengers at each airport and then work out what the percentage is?

....If that makes any sense!

 

[jfy1999]

I wonder how we should go about comparing this with other sites that have passenger reviews with much higher scores. For example, Birmingham, my local airport, scores an average 3.7 out of 5 based on a total of 221 Google reviews, and 74% on Flightdiary even though it only scores 4 out of 10 here. Manchester scores 76% and I believe Heathrow hits the 80% mark.
I absolutely agree that people are more likely to talk about bad experiences than good ones.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Great post TLY. Given the amount of negative reviews at most airports I wonder how the figures would look if you devide the number of reviews by the number of passengers at each airport and then work out what the percentage is?

....If that makes any sense!

I see what you are saying but we'd be looking at very tiny fractions of one per cent for many of the airports.

Perhaps another way of looking at it is to ascertain the number of reviews in each family of airports based on annual passenger numbers.

For example, LTN has 340 reviews, EDI 142 and BHX 167.

NCL has 98 reviews, EMA 74, BFS 56 and LPL 233.

LCY has 108 reviews, ABZ 43 and LBA 180.

So within the various 'families' the passengers at some airports are more numerous with their reviews than at others. Why that should be I have no idea.

I wonder how we should go about comparing this with other sites that have passenger reviews with much higher scores. For example, Birmingham, my local airport, scores an average 3.7 out of 5 based on a total of 221 Google reviews, and 74% on Flightdiary even though it only scores 4 out of 10 here. Manchester scores 76% and I believe Heathrow hits the 80% mark.
I absolutely agree that people are more likely to talk about bad experiences than good ones.

It seems a bit like the various polls before the general election with each polling company coming up with something a bit different and none getting anywhere near the correct result.

 

[Ray Finkle]

It's interesting stuff.

As has been said very few people will write positive reviews but many cannot wait to write something negative.

Sometimes I feel airports are in an impossible position though.

Many complaints seem to be about the cost of facilities at airports. When you have passengers demanding cheap fares airlines in turn demand lower fees from airports, who in turn then have to look for others sources of revenue. Retail outlets seem to be a big part of that at the moment as do charges for baggage trolleys, drop off fees etc. If people want to continue to enjoy lower fares then it's something they will have to get used to.

Baggage reclaim is another one that appears regularly. Again with the onset of low fares handling agents are now resorting to offering rock bottom prices to try and win new contracts. It's inevitable this will have a huge bearing on not only staffing levels but also the quality of service offered.

Queues when entering the UK also seem to be a common complaint and again airports are at the mercy of UKBF who provide the staff. It is very frustrating when despite huge queues you see a row of empty desks and it's invariably the airport where they direct their anger.

I also think that the time of arrival can have a big influence on the airport 'experience'. At my own local airport (BHX) I have done airport to car in less than 20 mins and that included collecting two bags, yet on other occasions I have joined a seemingly endless queue and then waited an eternity for baggage. It's the same airport on a similar type of holiday flight yet if I had decided to write a review for either occasion they would have been very different.

 

[Jon Dempsey]

A lot depends on the time of passing through IMO. I usually travel during the morning rush-hour and it can be a real pain in the butt. The same goes for the return of rush-hour flights.

When I have travelled out at mid-day, the experience is massively less stressful.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Unless they have an interest in the subject most people don't realise how relatively cheap and numerous are the flights from many regional airport these days.

They forget that no more than 20 years ago the scheduled programme at many airports was very limited and the flights that did operate were expensive then, even more so if transposed into today's prices.

As Ray points out, if people want these much cheaper fares something has to pay for them. The airlines don't pay much to airports as they once did with the result that airports have to look at alternative revenue streams such as car parking (including dropoff/pickup), luggage trolleys and retail outlets, all things that annoy many people some of whom then complain in organs like Skytrax.

Someone once gave BHX 0 out of 10 because there was no water fountain in the terminal.

At BRS a regular source of complaint is the long walk (up to 400 metres) if an aircraft is parked at the far end of the western walkway. I can understand this is if people are elderly, infirm or with young children but the majority are perfectly fit adults. It's not even as if they have to carry their suitcases on this walk. Neither my wife nor I are in the first flush of youth but we welcome the walk before or after an hour or two in an aircraft seat. I think it's down to many people not wanting to walk anywhere these days. I frequently see people of my acquaintance taking their cars for ridiculously short errands.

 

[Jon Dempsey]

Maybe there's an opening for Rent-a-Segway!

 

[Tarn Spotter]

Great info TLY. Really shows all airports can have an issue under certain conditions and we really should be prepared for the pain, its the price we pay for using this form of transport. The figures certainly show not worth chasing round the country for the perfect option.
I am just hoping IATA new reduced cabin luggage size (40% reduction) will bring more competition in the door to door suitcase market. I hate taking my hold luggage.

 

[Ray Finkle]

if people want these much cheaper fares something has to pay for them. The airlines don't pay much to airports as they once did with the result that airports have to look at alternative revenue streams such as car parking (including dropoff/pickup), luggage trolleys and retail outlets, all things that annoy many people some of whom then complain in organs like Skytrax.

Totally agree.

As supporters of our respective local airports forums such as this one are filled with people (and I'm as bad as anyone) wanting new terminals, extensions here and new facilities there, yet in the same breath we are also asking for our airports to make themselves more competitive to airlines in the hope they can attract new business. I think we can all see the problem there.

I can only speak for my own local airport at BHX but in the last few years we have seen large sums of money invested in projects such as the old pier replaced by a great new one, a remodelling of the terminals and most importantly an extension to the runway. This has come to approx £300 million and at a time when airlines seem to be paying much less that is a huge sum of money. Indeed I'm sure I have read recently that 2014 was the first year ever that airline fees were not the primary source of income (I think it is now retail?).

To me the investment has made sure my local airport is ready for the future, is more attractive to potential new customers and offers a much more pleasant passenger 'experience'. If that now means I have to pay £1 to use a baggage trolley or have to sit and painstakingly watch Mrs Finkle touring the retail offering in the departure lounge then it's a small price to pay.

I wonder what the response would be if some of these 'reviewers' were offered the levels of service seen years ago but in exchange they would have to pay the equivalent price of their air ticket inflated to today's prices?

At BRS a regular source of complaint is the long walk (up to 400 metres) if an aircraft is parked at the far end of the western walkway. I can understand this is if people are elderly, infirm or with young children but the majority are perfectly fit adults. It's not even as if they have to carry their suitcases on this walk. Neither my wife nor I are in the first flush of youth but we welcome the walk before or after an hour or two in an aircraft seat. I think it's down to many people not wanting to walk anywhere these days. I frequently see people of my acquaintance taking their cars for ridiculously short errands.

I'd bet if the walkway wasn't available the same folk would then be complaining that they had to be bussed to their aircraft