Air travelers at John Glenn not happy

Crowded terminals, worker shortages, and flight cancellations and delays are taking their toll on airline passengers throughout North America and in Columbus.

Customer satisfaction at John Glenn Columbus International Airport fell from 2020, when COVID ravaged the travel sector, clearing out airport terminals and forcing would-be travelers to stay home.

Those are the results of a survey from consumer research firm J.D. Power, which polls air travelers annually. The group questioned 26,529 people who passed through at least one airport in the United States or Canada this year.

The average customer satisfaction rating for medium-sized airports – John Glenn is in that category, according to J.D. Power – was 805 on a 1,000 pointscale. The Columbus airport scored a 803, just below average.

“Despite the challenging times airports have faced over the last few years, our team continues to appreciate and deliver on the customer experience for our passengers,” Joe Nardone, president and CEO of the Columbus Regional Airport Authority – which operates John Glenn and Rickenbacker International Airport – said in an email.

The research firm did not include medium sized airports in the 2021 survey because it couldn’t get enough respondents with so few travelers, said a J.D. Power spokesperson. John Glenn scored an 820 in 2020, above the average of 812. Overall satisfaction among air travelers shot up last year. Nearly a third of survey respondents said they had a better opinion of air travel in 2021 than they did in 2020.

Common complaints in 2022 include sparse parking, crowded terminals, and delayed or cancelled flights, J.D. Power said in a news release.

“For the most part it’s not the airports’ fault,” said Michael Taylor, JD Power’s managing director of travel, hospitality, and retail.

Flight delays and cancellations stem from a shortage of pilots, which is part of a labor shortage that extends across the economy. The restaurants, retail stores and bars that populate airport terminals are also not immune.

Hiring woes have persisted even as

COVID infections fall.

The return of large crowds also didn’t help. Passenger numbers at John Glenn are just short of pre-pandemic levels, the Columbus Dispatch reported last week.

The airport authority reported 692,343 passengers in June, the most recent month for which statistics are available. That was up 20% from June 2021, but down about 11% from June 2019, before the pandemic.

Ironically, passenger satisfaction spiked last year when COVID devastated the travel industry. With far fewer people populating flights and waiting at terminals, flyers faced shorter lines, empty parking lots, and fewer cancellations and delays.

Now that terminals seem more cramped and parking lots are filling back up, passenger satisfaction is returning to the level seen in 2019.

“None of this is unexpected,” Taylor said.

Higher passenger numbers are driven by leisure travelers taking socalled “revenge” trips, he said. Ohioans pent up in their houses during COVID are taking the vacations they put off during the pandemic.

Taylor expects the spike in travel demand to last at least through the holidays, and airports have few short-term fixes to mollify travelers, he said.

Columbus in particular has many of the conveniences that travelers crave, including restaurants and stores in the terminal, Taylor said. And in an email, an airport spokesperson stressed that John Glenn is adding even more amenities such as a valet service and an upcoming airport lounge.

But problems are likely to persist, Taylor said. An airport terminal restaurant can’t serve customers if it can’t find enough workers, he said. pcooley@dispatch.com @Patrickacooley