See Why New Orleans Airport Has Surged in Customer Satisfaction Ranking

Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport's ranking has surged in a widely-watched annual customer satisfaction poll, following the move to the gleaming new $1 billion, 35-gate terminal last November.

The airport's improvement — rising to 11th from the 23rd spot in last year's poll — was the second-biggest jump in its class. Only Ronald Reagan Washington National posted a bigger gain, going from 25th to 14th out of a total 27 in the "Large Airports" category, according to the annual survey by market research firm J.D. Power.

It was, of course, far from a typical year for the North American Airport Satisfaction Study, and J.D. Power noted in the report that the record-high overall airport satisfaction rating came amid dwindling passenger numbers caused by the pandemic crisis.

"A year ago, the biggest challenge confronting North American airports was overcrowding," the J.D. Power study said. "Satisfaction (this year) has risen sharply since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching a record high ... as passengers breeze through security checkpoints, baggage claim and food and retail services."

More than 26,000 people were surveyed from August last year through July of this year and were asked to rate airports they'd visited within the previous 30 days on six factors: terminal facilities, airport accessibility, security check, baggage claim, check-in/baggage check and food, beverage and retail.

New Orleans, which competes with airports that have between 10 million and 32.9 million passengers a year, had consistently ranked as one of the lowliest of all the airports, coming 8th from the bottom out of a total of 65 airports two years ago. The surge in the rankings was also a far cry from the first few months the new terminal was open, when it was at times plagued by long security lines, traffic snarls and long waits in the Uber and Lyft lines.

New York's LaGuardia is perennially the lowest ranked airport and this year was no exception. Though its points tally surged by 50 to 712, it was still the lowest-ranked airport in the country, as it has been in the previous three surveys.

Mike Taylor, head of travel research at J.D. Power, said the New Orleans airport has outperformed even when the unprecedented circumstances of the pandemic are taken into account. It gained 54 points to 794 compared with last year, and was 10 points above the national average for all airports in the survey.

"The new MSY terminal provided a lot of positives for Louis Armstrong New Orleans International," said Taylor, using the airport's International Air Transport Association three-letter location identifier designation.

"The improvements added more parking spaces, streamlined the security check process and brought much more local flavor into the airport," said Taylor, referring to the nearly 50 concessions that were added to the three new concourses, including outlets of iconic New Orleans eateries like Dooky Chase, Emeril's, and Folse's Market.

Many of the food and other retail outlets that helped boost the customer scores are now closed because of the pandemic. The airport currently lists just 14 food outlets and six non-food retailers as open for limited business.

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