Jetstar Named World's Worst Airline by CHOICE

1st May 2017

In a customer survey conducted by CHOICE, Australian Jetstar was named as the "World's Worst Airline" among more than 70 carriers from eight countries based on delays, passenger comfort and onboard staff hospitality.

CHOICE Head of Media Tom Godfey explained Jetstar's poor position saying it needs to "clean up its act":

"It's not surprising Jetstar rated so poorly given its track record of delays and cancellations and its policy of landing its customers with sneaky pre-ticked extras."

Of course, Jetstar wasn't too happy with this and hit back with a statement of its own:

"CHOICE seems to enjoy criticizing airlines without understanding the safety standards we operate to or recognizing the role of low-cost carriers in making travel more affordable for millions of Australians. We know how important it is to get customers to their destination on time, and we recognize there is room for improvement and our team is doing a lot of work behind the scenes."

Jetstar also said the survey itself was flawed because it did not include Tiger Airways and only focused on eight countries.

Jetstar ranked dead last on the survey on 73rd spot. In six out of nine categories, it had the lowest rates, including:

- 4.51 out of 10 for onboard comfort

- 6.43 out of 10 for check-in progress

- 6.13 out of 10 for boarding

- 6.64 out of 10 for staff satisfaction

- 6.04 out of 10 for punctuality, and

- 2.32 out of 10 for onboard meals

Other Australian airlines, Qantas and Virgin Australia, also didn't fare very well on this survey. Qantas ranked 36th and Virgin Australia 51st.

Ronald Bishop, Head of Aviation at Central Queensland University explained Australian carriers' low ranking on its over-reliance on sub-contractors.

He said:

"Jetstar, Qantas, Virgin they all do it, they'll sub-contract to another company to take care of your bags, take care of their customer service, to do the maintenance."

The best-ranked international airline according to the survey was Emirates with an overall score of 8.29.

Meanwhile, in a separate report by The Australian Corporate Reputation Index, Air New Zealand was named as "Australia's most reputable company".

Mr. Bishop had this to say about the report:

"Air New Zealand has figured out what Australian airlines haven't, they concentrate on being on time and don't compensate with sub-par service."