Survey’s blow for Jetstar

LOW-cost airline Jetstar has been rated as the worst in the world by travellers who blame long delays and lack of cost transparency as their biggest gripes.

About one in three Jetstar passengers reported flight delays and the average hold-up was nearly four hours behind the scheduled time, new international findings have shown.

The results were compiled by 11 consumers groups globally including Australian consumer watchdog Choice – they quizzed 11,000 passengers who had travelled in the past year.

The findings showed Qantas was ranked as the best of the national carriers (ranking 36), ahead of rival airline Virgin Australia (51) and Jetstar (73). However, a Jetstar spokeswoman said the airline would always put safety before a schedule. Emirates took the crown as the best airline in the world. Tigerair was not included in the survey because the sample size of passengers was too small, at fewer than than 100 responses.

Customers rated airlines on criteria including punctuality, checking in, boarding, treatment by staff, comfort, meals, safety and value for money.

Choice spokesman Tom Godfrey said Jetstar’s international rock-bottom rating should be “a real wake-up call for the airline”, adding: “Jetstar failed to fly – they are bottom of the pack when it comes to satisfaction. Across the board we see they are failing to perform and consumers are unhappy about excessive fees, the airlines aren’t clean and they’re just not running on time.

“Consumers are unhappy, the airlines are not treating them the way they should and there are clear breaches of Australian consumer law – it’s an area we think the regulator needs to look at.”