Pearson Airport Ranked Super Low For Customer Satisfaction In North America & Yikes

Toronto Pearson Airport was ranked one of North America's worst airports for customer satisfaction.

However, according to a recent survey conducted by J.D. Power, Pearson wasn't alone on the list of airports that make people unhappy.

With passenger volumes getting super close to how things were before the pandemic, airports are experiencing labour shortages and high flight cancellation numbers, which are causing customers to be unsatisfied with their experience.

Who wants to experience airport problems while going on holiday? No one...ever!

The "sky-high satisfaction scores have once again fallen down to Earth," the report states.

Overall results of the report

According to the study released on Wednesday, overall satisfaction went down 25 points on a 1,000-point scale to 777 in 2022.

This is due to fewer flights, more people in terminals, and sparse F&B offerings, and it's not likely to end this year either.

Michael Taylor, travel intelligence lead at J.D. Power, said, "The combination of pent-up demand for air travel, the nationwide labour 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—and it is likely to continue through 2023."

What about Toronto?

Toronto Pearson Airport earned a score of only 755 in the mega airport's list, only beating Boston Logan International Airport (754), Los Angeles International Airport (753), O'Hare International Airport (751) and Newark Liberty International Airport (719).

This put Pearson in spot number 16 out of 20. Yikes!

A Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA) spokesperson told Narcity that they "recognize the frustrations that travellers have experienced recently at Pearson and it's not what we want for our passengers."

They added that they have been working with their airport partners — including government agencies and airlines — to make improvements.

The J.D. Power survey is based on traveller satisfaction in mega, large and medium airports in North America and uses "terminal facilities; airport arrival/departure; baggage claim; security check; check-in/baggage check; and food, beverage and retail," in their the criteria.

"In some ways, this is a return to normal as larger crowds at airports tend to make travellers more frazzled, 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," Michael Taylor comments in the report.

The study recorded 26,529 completed surveys from U.S. or Canadian residents who have travelled through at least one U.S. or Canadian airport in the last 30 days.

However, it is worth noting that GTAA also told Narcity that people surveyed at Toronto Pearson only equal 0.003% of passengers that travel through their doors.

"We believe this sample size is too small to draw any relevant conclusions," they added.