LaGuardia and Newark both rank dead last in a survey of customer satisfaction at airports nationwide. Travelers say LaGaurdia is the most dissatisfying medium-size airport, while Newark is absolutely the worst big airport. The survey, conducted annually by market researcher J.D. Power & Associates, rates airports based on a variety of factors. JFK ranked 15 out of 19 large airports surveyed. (A large airport serves at least 30 million passengers a year, while a medium-size airport handles between 10 million and 30 million.)
It's a major fall from grace for our hometown airports; Newark ranked ninth and Kennedy seventh among large airports back in 2008. "They have been cursed with terminal designs that simply, for lack of space, have not been able to keep up with the growth of those airports," Jay Sorensen, president of an airline consulting firm, tells Business Week. "And security issues have just pushed them over the top." Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County was named the best large airport, Kansas City International schooled us for the best midsize airport.
But a Port Authority spokesperson urged everyone to keep living in the past, telling NY1, "Our airports have fared well in other previous surveys, including J.D. Power's results in 2006 and 2008 when LaGuardia placed first and second respectively." And anyway, what are people going to do, not fly into New York? As David Stempler, president of the Air Travelers Association, observes, "The bottom line is, these kind of rankings won’t change the passenger’s purchasing decision. There’s no real issue for the passengers. They won’t pick one airport over the other because of the quality of the airport itself." Yep, they've got us right where they want us: sleeping on the floor, eating at Chili's, and sneaking by security to kiss loved ones goodbye.
