The U.S. airport industry’s passenger sentiment score dipped ever so slightly below the industry benchmark of 8.3 out of 10.0.
September 23, 2022 @ 10am EDT
During the past 7 calendar days, the U.S. airport industry’s overall sentiment score decreased by 1.0% to 8.27 from 8.35. Security lines at certain airports were extra long this past week, sometimes resulting in hours-long delays. In the case of Seattle Tacoma International Airport, the delays were exacerbated by “a combination of unexpectedly high numbers of end-of-summer travelers, not enough Transportation Security Administration officers to meet the demand, and construction taking two lanes offline,” according to a Sea-Tac airport blog post.
GlidePathCX continues to engage millions of airport passengers each week by reaching passengers on their mobile and laptop devices while they are in the airport. The majority of these electronic communications contained a Passenger Experience Survey, with overall sentiment measured on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the best).
GlidePathCX’s Sentiment Score was calculated for each airport on a near real-time basis via the company’s proprietary Insight360SM dashboard. The resulting data was then aggregated to calculate a sentiment score for the U.S. airport industry as a whole.
For the week ending September 23rd, the percentage of business traveler respondents was significantly higher than in previous weeks: 20.7% for business travelers vs. 79.3% for leisure travelers. In previous weeks the percentage of business travelers has hovered at around 20%.
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport has introduced a program, similar to those found at major amusement parks, that allows travelers to pre-reserve a spot in the TSA security line. The program, called “Spot Saver“, is actually a lifesaver for those who live in fear of missing a flight because of elongated security lines. The Spot Saver program is a perfect example of an airport using technology to reduce friction in the passenger journey.
GlidePathCX will continue to closely monitor airport passenger sentiment and related insights and trends.