New Orleans Loses Top Spot in Annual Airport Survey as Travelers Generally Less Satisfied

Sep. 22—Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport lost its top spot in a widely-watched annual survey of travelers' satisfaction, amid a broad decline in contentment as passenger traffic return to normal.

The poll by J.D. Power said New Orleans slipped to fourth place in the "Large Airports" category, after leading the 2021 list when travelers expressed their highest satisfaction levels since the survey began in 2005.

Passenger numbers at the New Orleans airport have been rising sharply this year. More than 3.4 million people boarded planes at the airport through July, a 52.7% increase over the first seven months of 2021. Airline passenger traffic from January through July of this year was at 85% of traffic during the same period in 2019.

A surge in traffic

Michael Taylor, head of travel intelligence at J.D. Power, said the lower score for New Orleans was simply related to bigger crowds and there were no notable declines in other categories.

The increase in passenger traffic was "a lot more than most other airports saw," he said. "They're a great airport and in my opinion it's the best designed airport in the United States."

J.D. Power is scheduled to hold its first ever airport industry summit in New Orleans in April.

Labor shortages

Though airport satisfaction scores were at a record high last year, J.D. Power had warned that they belied growing challenges, especially with labor shortages looming.

New Orleans this year was still ranked highly, with 813 points out a possible 1,000, though that was down from 844 last year. The top airport this year in the category, Tampa International Airport, dropped one point from last year after it completed major upgrade projects. John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California ranked second, while Dallas Love Field was third.

J.D. Power said that it wasn't only the return of crowds back to nearly pre-pandemic levels, but also staff shortages and flight cancellations that has led to a decline this year in overall traveler satisfaction with airports and air travel.

"Those sky-high satisfaction scores have once again fallen down to Earth," said Taylor, noting that overall scores fell by 25 points.

Same old

"In some ways, this is a return to normal as larger crowds at airports tend to make travelers more frazzled," Taylor said. "But in cases where parking lots are over capacity, gates are standing room only and restaurants and bars are not even open to offer some reprieve, it is clear that increased capacity in airports can't come soon enough."

Kevin Dolliole, director of aviation, said in a statement that he was thrilled to see the airport ranked among the top 5 in the J.D. Power survey.

"Despite challenges that MSY and airports across the country are facing due to labor shortages and inflation, this number 4 ranking demonstrates just how hard we work with our airlines and other service providers to deliver top notch service every step of the passenger journey through our facility," he said.

More flights

In July, the latest data available, there were an average of 134 daily departures compared to 151 in 2019. The airport is projecting that it will have 56 nonstop destinations available by the end of the year, two more than in 2019, according to airport spokesperson Erin Burns.

In New Orleans, the number of nonstop destinations has increased thanks to the addition of several new flights since 2019, including those from new entrant Breeze Airways, said Burns.

Southwest Airlines is expected to add a new nonstop flight to Long Beach, California in January. It will operate on Sundays initially.

International flights are mostly back to pre-pandemic levels and new ones are scheduled to be added, including an Air Canada, which is adding a second daily flight to Toronto this month. A new Air Canada direct flight to Montreal is scheduled to start in February, postponed from October due to an "internal planning" hitch, the airline said.

Air Transat is scheduled to return with its direct twice-a-week flights to Montreal in November.

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