Airline Passenger Experience Statistics for 2026

Amy Lancelotte

By:  Amy Lancelotte

29 minutes read

Last Updated:  September 25, 2026

Airline passengers in North America were more satisfied in 2026 than a year earlier, according to both of the major independent satisfaction surveys. The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) put US airlines at 76 out of 100, one point below its all-time high, and the JD Power study found gains in every cabin, from first class to basic economy.

Why this matters: fares, fees and on-time rates are easy to count, but they do not tell you how a flight actually felt. The surveys on this page ask passengers directly. JD Power, the ACSI and Skytrax each use a different method and a different scale, so we show each score on its own terms and never blend them into one index. Official complaint counts from the US Department of Transportation (DOT) and punctuality data complete the picture from the other side: what went wrong, and how often flights ran late.

Key Airline Passenger Experience Statistics at a Glance

1. Overall passenger satisfaction with North American airlines rose 8 points on JD Power's 1,000-point scale in its 2026 study.
   Source: JD Power, 2026 North America Airline Satisfaction Study, 6 May 2026
2. First/business class averaged 717 points, 90 more than economy/basic economy at 627; the first/business average rose 17 points, the economy average 6.
   Source: JD Power, 2026 North America Airline Satisfaction Study, 6 May 2026
3. JetBlue Airways scored 759 in first/business, the highest in that segment for a second consecutive year.
   Source: JD Power, 2026 North America Airline Satisfaction Study, 6 May 2026
4. Delta Air Lines led premium economy with 736 points, its fourth consecutive year on top.
   Source: JD Power, 2026 North America Airline Satisfaction Study, 6 May 2026
5. Southwest Airlines ranked first in economy/basic economy for a fifth year, with 670, just 3 points ahead of Delta and down from 694 in 2025.
   Source: JD Power, 2025 and 2026 North America Airline Satisfaction Studies
6. Frontier Airlines scored lowest in economy/basic economy at 533, while Spirit Airlines posted the biggest gain, up 34 points to 560.
   Source: JD Power, 2025 and 2026 North America Airline Satisfaction Studies
7. US airlines scored 76 out of 100 in the ACSI, up 3% and one point below the industry's all-time high of 77 set in 2024.
   Source: ACSI, Travel Study 2026, 21 April 2026
8. Delta topped the ACSI at 79, and American Airlines climbed 7% to 78, tied with JetBlue for second.
   Source: ACSI, Travel Study 2026, 21 April 2026
9. Spirit Airlines had the lowest ACSI score of 2026, 66, down 4%, while Southwest fell 4% from 80 to 77.
   Source: ACSI, Travel Study 2026, 21 April 2026
10. Passenger ratings of in-flight Wi-Fi quality jumped from 66 to 79, the largest gain of the 21 experience benchmarks ACSI tracks.
    Source: ACSI, Travel Study 2026, 21 April 2026
11. Singapore Airlines was named the World's Best Airline 2026 by Skytrax, the sixth time it has won the title, based on a passenger survey run from September 2025 to August 2026.
    Source: Skytrax, World Airline Awards 2026, 18 September 2026
12. Cathay Pacific Airways won the Skytrax award for the World's Best Cabin Crew 2026, and Singapore Airlines won the World's Best Economy Class.
    Source: Skytrax, World Airline Awards 2026, 18 September 2026
13. Qatar Airways won the first-ever Skytrax award for the World's Best Onboard Wi-Fi, with Delta Air Lines second and United Airlines third.
    Source: Skytrax, World Airline Awards 2026, 18 September 2026
14. About 7 in 10 of 106 airlines worldwide offer inflight Wi-Fi on at least part of their fleet: 89% of legacy carriers but only 43% of budget airlines.
    Source: Moment, Global Inflight Connectivity Benchmark 2025, November 2025
15. Refunds were the top reason passengers complained to DOT from January to June 2026: 12,557 of 43,184 cases, or 29.1%.
    Source: DOT, Air Travel Consumer Report, August 2026
16. 75.1% of US flights arrived on time from January to July 2026, against 75.5% in the same months of 2025.
    Source: DOT, Air Travel Consumer Report, September 2026; BTS delay-cause data, 2025

Satisfaction Rose in Every Cabin, but the Gap Between Cabins Widened

JD Power's 2026 study surveyed 10,914 passengers who had flown a major North American airline in the month before answering, with fieldwork from March 2025 to March 2026. All three cabin segments improved, but not at the same pace.

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Source: JD Power, 2026 North America Airline Satisfaction Study, 6 May 2026 (segment averages 717, 682 and 627). 2025 averages are the 2026 figures minus the changes JD Power reports (17, 14 and 6 points); all three results (700, 668 and 621) match the segment averages printed in the 2025 study's ranking charts.

First/business passengers gained 17 points to 717 and premium economy passengers 14 points to 682, while economy/basic economy rose just 6 points to 627. The distance between the front and the back of the plane grew from 79 points to 90. JD Power credits the overall improvement to the on-board experience, the day-of-travel experience before and after the flight, and value for the price paid. It also warns that fares rising sharply in 2026, and higher bag fees to cover fuel costs, could make those gains harder to hold.

Economy and Basic Economy: Which Airlines Passengers Rate Highest

Most passengers fly in the main cabin, which makes this the segment that matters for the widest group of travellers. The same 11 airlines were ranked in both years, so the scores line up directly.

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Source: JD Power, 2026 North America Airline Satisfaction Study, 6 May 2026, and 2025 North America Airline Satisfaction Study, 7 May 2025 (economy/basic economy rankings). JD Power notes that its rankings are based on numerical scores and not necessarily on statistical significance.

Southwest kept first place with 670, but it lost 24 points and its lead over Delta (667) shrank to 3 points; JD Power notes that Southwest has overhauled how it operates and that new fees have traditionally weighed on satisfaction. American Airlines gained 27 points to 624, and Spirit gained 34 to 560. At the bottom, Frontier (533) and WestJet (553) remain more than 70 points below the segment average. Spirit stopped flying on 2 May 2026, so its score describes its final year of operations.

First Class, Business Class and Premium Economy Scores

Fewer airlines are ranked in the premium segments, and JetBlue, Delta and Alaska finished in the top three of both.

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Source: JD Power, 2026 North America Airline Satisfaction Study, 6 May 2026 (first/business: 6 airlines ranked; premium economy: 7 airlines ranked).

JetBlue's 759 in first/business was the highest score in the whole study, 42 points above the segment average. Delta's 736 in premium economy put it 54 points above that segment's average of 682. Air Canada, the only Canadian carrier ranked in first/business, came last in both premium segments, and Alaska Airlines scored exactly 720 in each.

ACSI Airline Scores: Delta Leads, Spirit Trails

The ACSI Travel Study 2026 is based on 14,910 completed surveys of US travellers across five travel industries, airlines included, collected from April 2025 to March 2026. It reports every major US airline plus an "all others" group, on a 0 to 100 scale.

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Source: American Customer Satisfaction Index, ACSI Travel Study 2026, 21 April 2026 (all airlines and groups reported). Percentage changes in the text are ACSI's own.

Delta rose 3% to 79, the top score of 2026, and American's 7% jump to 78 almost reversed its steep fall the year before; ACSI ties part of that gain to business travellers warming to its loyalty programme. Southwest, the 2025 leader at 80, slipped to 77. ACSI points to lower ratings for its crew, gate staff and call centres, and to reaction against its move to assigned seating and its policy for larger passengers. The two surveys do not always agree: Spirit rose 34 points with JD Power but fell 4% to 66 in the ACSI, which cites sharply lower ratings for its mobile app and call centre.

Which Parts of the Trip Passengers Rate Best and Worst

Beyond the headline score, the ACSI asks passengers to rate 21 parts of the journey, from booking to baggage. Every one of them improved in 2026.

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Source: American Customer Satisfaction Index, ACSI Travel Study 2026, 21 April 2026 (customer experience benchmarks, all 21 items; labels shortened). Change = 2026 rating minus 2025 rating.

In-flight Wi-Fi quality made the biggest leap, from 66 to 79, a gain ACSI puts at 20%. The usefulness of flight information rose from 71 to 82, and complimentary food and drink from 73 to 79. Digital tools rate highest, with mobile app reliability at 85, while seat comfort is the lowest-rated item at 76, followed by in-flight entertainment at 78. Complaint handling improved too: 33% of business passengers said they had complained, down from 38%, and the ACSI score of those who complained rose from 73 to 77.

Skytrax World Airline Awards 2026: The Passengers' Choice

Skytrax's World Airline Awards are based on a survey of passengers of more than 100 nationalities, run from September 2025 to August 2026 in eight languages and covering more than 300 airlines. Respondents nominate the airline they consider best and rate parts of the journey on a 1 to 5 scale. Skytrax publishes rankings, not scores.

Source: Skytrax, World Airline Awards 2026, award results pages and press release, 18 September 2026.

East and Southeast Asian airlines took 6 of the Top 10 places. The World's Top 10 in 2026 is Singapore Airlines, Qatar Airways, Cathay Pacific, ANA, Turkish Airlines, Emirates, Air France, Hainan Airlines, Japan Airlines and Korean Air. No US airline made the Top 20; Air Canada was the highest-placed North American carrier at 17th, with Delta 25th. In the regional awards, Delta won Best Economy Class, Best Premium Economy Class, Best Business Class and Best Cabin Crew in North America, while Air Canada won Best Airline in North America. AirAsia won the World's Best Low-Cost Airline title for a 17th consecutive year.

Inflight Wi-Fi: Offered by Most Legacy Airlines

Connectivity is the part of the cabin that changed fastest in passengers' eyes, and it is now common enough that Skytrax introduced a dedicated award for it in 2026. The gap that remains is between full-service and budget airlines.

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Source: Moment, Global Inflight Connectivity Benchmark 2025 (Moment Connectivity Database, 106 airlines in Europe, the Americas, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East and Africa, November 2025), published 25 November 2025. "All airlines" = about 7 in 10.

89% of legacy carriers offer Wi-Fi on some or all of their fleet, against 43% of budget airlines worldwide. The Americas are the exception, where 71% of budget carriers are connected. Free access is still rare: among connected airlines, 58% use a "freemium" model with some free service and 13% offer fully free Wi-Fi, according to the same benchmark. The ACSI's 13-point rise in Wi-Fi ratings, the biggest of any benchmark, suggests passengers are noticing the upgrades.

What Passengers Complain About

Satisfaction surveys capture the average trip. Complaints to DOT capture the trips that went wrong badly enough for a passenger to file with the regulator. Since 2026, passengers choose the complaint category themselves.

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Source: US Department of Transportation, Air Travel Consumer Report, August 2026 (complaint cases January to June 2026, all airlines and travel agents). "All other" combines fees and fares, bumping and oversales, disability, advertising, discrimination, animals and other.

Refunds led with 12,557 cases (29.1%), followed by flight schedule problems such as cancellations, delays and missed connections with 9,477 (21.9%) and baggage with 6,459 (15.0%). Customer service complaints made up just 5.9%. For airline-by-airline complaint counts and rates per passenger, see our US airline complaint statistics, and for lost and delayed bags, our baggage mishandling statistics.

Flight to or from Europe cancelled or 3+ hours late?If your flight departed the EU, or landed in the EU on an EU airline, EU261 may entitle you to up to 600 EUR when the cause was within the airline's control. UK261 gives up to 520 GBP on flights departing the UK, or arriving there on a UK or EU airline.Check Your Flight

Punctuality: The Experience Driver Airlines Control Least

Arriving on time is one of the ACSI's 21 benchmarks, and passengers rated it higher in 2026 (82, up from 77). The operational record is flatter.

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Source: US Department of Transportation, Air Travel Consumer Report, September 2026, Table 1B (reporting marketing carriers including branded codeshare partners, year to date January to July 2026). All-flights figure from the same report.

The Alaska Airlines network led with 79.6% of flights on time, followed by Delta at 78.1%, while JetBlue trailed at 68.5%. Across all US flights, 75.1% arrived on time from January to July 2026, slightly below the 75.5% of the same period in 2025, and full-year 2025 punctuality (76.42%) was lower than 2024's 78.10%. Because the ACSI ratings were collected from April 2025 to March 2026, the fairer comparison is 2025 against 2024, and on that basis the higher timeliness ratings are not matched by an improvement in measured on-time rates. More detail is in our North American late arrival statistics. In Europe, Eurocontrol recorded 76.1% arrival punctuality across the network in 2025; airline-level results are in our analysis of Europe's most unreliable airlines.

Outlook

By every independent measure available in 2026, flying got a little better for passengers: higher satisfaction in all three JD Power segments, an ACSI score near its record, and sharp gains for Wi-Fi and flight information. The weak points are physical and financial. Seat comfort is still the lowest-rated part of the trip, the gap between premium cabins and economy widened, and JD Power expects rising fares and fees to test the gains. And measured punctuality has not improved in step with how passengers rate it.

Delayed on a flight to or from Europe?Flights departing the EU on any airline, or arriving in the EU on an EU airline, can qualify for up to 600 EUR under EU261 after a delay of 3 hours or more at arrival.Check Compensation

References and Sources

• JD Power, 2026 North America Airline Satisfaction Study, press release and ranking charts, 6 May 2026
• JD Power, 2025 North America Airline Satisfaction Study, press release and ranking charts, 7 May 2025
• American Customer Satisfaction Index, ACSI Travel Study 2026, 21 April 2026
• American Customer Satisfaction Index, Customer Satisfaction With Travel Industries Turns a Corner as Airlines Climb to Near All-Time High, press release, 21 April 2026
• Skytrax, Singapore Airlines is named the World's Best Airline at the 2026 World Airline Awards, 18 September 2026
• Skytrax, World's Top 10 Airlines of 2026 and World's Top 100 Airlines 2026, September 2026
• Skytrax, World's Best Airline Cabin Crew 2026, September 2026
• Skytrax, World's Best Economy Class Airlines 2026, and the premium economy, business class, Wi-Fi, inflight entertainment, cleanest airline and low-cost award pages, September 2026
• Skytrax, World's Best Onboard Wi-Fi 2026, September 2026
• Skytrax, The 2025/2026 Survey and Awards Methodology, accessed 25 September 2026
• Moment, Global Inflight Connectivity Benchmark 2025 (Moment Connectivity Database, November 2025), 25 November 2025
• US Department of Transportation, Air Travel Consumer Report, August 2026 (complaint cases January to June 2026), 12 August 2026
• US Department of Transportation, Air Travel Consumer Report, September 2026 (flight delays July and January to July 2026, Table 1B)
• US Department of Transportation, Air Travel Consumer Report, February 2026 (full-year 2025 on-time data)
• US Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Airline On-Time Statistics and Delay Causes, January to July 2025 comparison period
• US Department of Transportation, Consumer Advisory: Status of Spirit Airlines Operations, 1 May 2026
• Eurocontrol, European Aviation Overview 2025, 23 January 2026

Methodology Note

This page reports passenger-experience measures from independent survey bodies and regulators, plus one industry connectivity benchmark (Moment, an inflight Wi-Fi portal provider), and each survey's score stays on its own scale: JD Power's 1,000-point index (6-point poor-to-perfect ratings across seven dimensions; 10,914 passengers; fieldwork March 2025 to March 2026), the ACSI's 0 to 100 score (14,910 completed surveys across the whole Travel Study, which also covers lodging, car rentals, rideshare and online travel agencies; April 2025 to March 2026) and Skytrax's rankings, which carry no published scores (open passenger survey, September 2025 to August 2026, over 100 nationalities, eight languages, more than 300 airlines). No figures from different surveys have been combined, averaged or converted. JD Power 2025 segment averages for first/business (700) and premium economy (668) are derived by subtracting the year-on-year changes JD Power reports from its 2026 averages; all three derived 2025 averages match the segment averages printed in the 2025 study's published charts (700, 668 and 621), and all airline-level 2025 scores are taken from those charts. Point gaps and changes (for example the 90-point cabin gap, 717 minus 627) are AirAdvisor calculations from the published scores; ACSI percentage changes are ACSI's own. ACSI benchmark labels are shortened. Skytrax results are shown as top-three placings from its published award lists; Skytrax also restricts reproduction of its full Top 100 list. Wi-Fi availability comes from Moment's benchmark of 106 airlines and describes the share of airlines, not of flights or seats; seat-level Wi-Fi and in-seat power data from ATPCO's Routehappy are licensed rather than published, so no in-seat power figure is shown. DOT complaint categories are chosen by the passengers who file, and a case counts once under its main category. On-time figures are DOT's reporting marketing carriers, including branded codeshare partners; a flight is on time when it arrives less than 15 minutes after schedule. Spirit Airlines stopped flying on 2 May 2026 and is not among the 8 carriers DOT ranks for the year to date. Rankings refer only to the survey, period and segment named.

Author:

Amy Lancelotte

Job/Position: Senior Writer & Content Strategist

Amy Lancelotte is a Senior Content Writer and editorial contributor at AirAdvisor with over seven years of experience producing research-based articles for international audiences. Her work focuses on travel, aviation, and air passenger rights, with an emphasis on factual accuracy, verified data, and clear, reader-first explanations.

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