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In March 2020, Southwest Airlines and JetBlue Airways shared top honors for customer satisfaction among North American airlines on short-haul flights, with *** and ***. The segment average stood at ***.

Low-cost carriers in North America

The two North American low-cost carriers with whom customers are most satisfied are also the two largest. In terms of both revenue and passengers, Southwest and JetBlue are among the world’s largest low-cost carriers, with Southwest being the undisputed segment leader. However, the comparison with airlines like Spirit and Frontier is perhaps a little unfair, as these latter two are both ultra low-cost carriers. Accordingly, their primary goal of providing lower ticket prices can lead to a reduced focus on customer convenience, for example, by having fewer flights between less-accessible secondary airports.

Satisfaction with low-cost versus full-service carriers

Not only are Southwest and JetBlue outperforming other low-cost carriers in terms of customer satisfaction, but they are also outperforming most full-service carriers. In 2019, Southwest and JetBlue received customer satisfaction index scores well above the U.S. airline industry average and higher than all three of the legacy carriers - Delta, United and American. A similar story occurred in Canada, with Air Canada receiving significantly more consumer complaints than WestJet in the financial year of 2018-2019.