(CNN) — Air travel volume is up and passenger satisfaction is down. This comes as no surprise to anyone who passed through an airport over the summer.
The J.D. Power 2022 North America Airport Satisfaction Study, released Wednesday, shows overall satisfaction down 25 points on a 1,000 point scale from the 2021 score. Newark Liberty International Airport had the worst score among mega-airports.
The overall satisfaction score for North American airports in 2022 was 777.
US passenger volume is nearing pre-pandemic levels. On Sunday, the US Transportation Security Administration screened 2,371,992 passengers at airport checkpoints. That figure is 94% of the same weekday in 2019.
But travelers are met with fewer flights, more crowded terminals and limited food and beverage options, the new J.D. Power study says.
“The combination of pent-up demand for air travel, the nationwide labor shortage and steadily rising prices on everything from jet fuel to a bottle of water have created a scenario in which airports are extremely crowded and passengers are increasingly frustrated,” said Michael Taylor, travel intelligence lead at J.D. Power, in a statement.
And Taylor expects this unfortunate set of circumstances to continue through 2023.
The 25-point drop comes on the heels of a record high level of satisfaction with North American airports — 802 on the 1,000-point scale — in last year’s study, which included passenger surveys from the second half of 2020.
But as that survey progressed into 2021, and the third and fourth waves of the study, traveler satisfaction steadily declined as passenger volume crept back up.
The 2022 study was fielded from August 2021 through July 2022 as air travel continued its rebound.
Passengers wait in line inside the terminal at Newark Liberty International Airport on November 24, 2021.
Eduardo Munoz/Reuters
It was based on more than 26,500 surveys from US or Canadian residents who traveled through at least one US or Canadian airport during the past 30 days. Travelers evaluated either a departing or arriving airport from their round-trip journey.
The study, now in its 17th year, looks at traveler satisfaction with airports in three categories: mega-airports, large airports and medium…
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