Inside Air Canada’s ‘best airline’ honour

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/02/2018 (2982 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Air Canada has been investing a significant amount of its advertising dollars reminding us they were voted the best airline in North America in the 2017 annual survey of travellers, undertaken by international air transport rating organization, SkyTrax.

In their promotions, Air Canada boasts it is the sixth time in eight years it has achieved this honour.

So why are most of the airline complaints I receive from readers aimed at Air Canada?

Well, size does matter.

Air Canada is a major international carrier, competing successfully with the world’s largest and best carriers. Every month, Air Canada is adding new routes and new destinations. It is logical then, that given the large number of passengers they transport every day, even if their satisfaction rating is high and complaint percentages are low, the number of people who have had negative experiences will appear greater.

Even though I, too, have often been quick to complain about Air Canada, they are an excellent airline. And as our national carrier, we have much to be proud of.

In the same SkyTrax survey, two other Canadian airline brands, Porter Airlines and WestJet, also ranked high in approval — at the seventh and eighth spots respectively. As Canadians, we should consider ourselves fortunate — especially compared to many other countries.

But there is still room for improvement.

In a separate survey done earlier this year, J.D. Power, another large ranking organization, did not rate Air Canada anywhere close to the top. Their methodology took in a broader range of factors, including overbooking, boarding, overhead storage-bin frustrations and complaints relating to delays and on-time performance.

Recently released figures from the U.S. Department of Transportation showed airlines south of the border have dramatically improved on a year-over-year basis in a number of these areas.

After video of a passenger being hauled off a United Airlines flight was seen around the world, all of the U.S. airlines seemed to take note.

Bumping rates for U.S. airlines have been reduced to the lowest level since the department began recording these incidents. On-time performance for December started to show dramatic improvement for U.S. carriers, increasing to 80.3 per cent from 75.6 per cent in the previous year, even though the results of the full year still showed a small drop from the year before.

It is here Canadian airlines really need to catch up, in order to reduce passenger complaints.

OAG, originally known as Official Aviation Guide, monitors similar performance results from most global airlines. Their measurements are based on a star system going from one to five, five being the best.

When it came to on-time results, Canadian carriers did not do well, with only WestJet receiving a less-than-perfect three-star rating for its 76.8 per cent on-time performance. To be on time, by OAG’s measures, actual arrival times cannot be more than 15 minutes after their scheduled arrival. Both Air Canada and Porter received only two stars in these ratings, with 68.4 and 65.6 per cent respectively.

OAG does provide a bit of an out for our Canadian carriers, suggesting our adverse weather patterns may have a legitimate impact on some of these performance figures.

It may also explain, at least in part, why Sunwing Airlines, used so often by Manitobans for winter destination flights, was only given a one-star rating in this category.

What is more discouraging, however, is the fact that on-time performance has seen an overall drop from the previous year.

Air Canada is the only major Canadian airline that still receives bumping complaints, because their passengers were denied boarding on the flights they booked. WestJet advertises no one is ever bumped. That is because, as a flier, you pay for a seat up front, and the airline considers it permanently sold. It does not allow no-shows — as Air Canada does. Unless you cancel your assigned seat, or show up extremely late, the seat is yours.

Canadians are still looking for the long-awaited passenger’s bill of rights, which is expected to be released within the next three months — it is supposed to address these consumer dissatisfactions.

Some critics who have access to the proposed new rules say it will not have the teeth the original political pledges suggested. Its original goals, purportedly, were to definitively address the issues of compensation for flight delays and bumping, among other things.

Canadians are still waiting to measure the distance between promise and delivery.

For those interested in how some of the other airlines ranked in the SkyTrax survey, the top five in order were Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines, ANA All Nippon Airways, Emirates, and Cathay Pacific.

On a worldwide basis, Air Canada was No. 34, while WestJet ranked 63rd. Delta Airlines, which offers a number of flights from Winnipeg, was in the 37th spot, but had the worst rating of flights cancelled at 2.9 per cent.

Air Canada’s newest low-cost option, Rouge, clearly will need to improve over the coming months to move from its near-bottom spot at number 99.

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pradinukr@shaw.ca