YVR is Canada's only airport rated above average for passenger satisfaction

Vancouver International Airport is Canada's only airport rated above average for passenger satisfaction in North America

Vancouver International Airport's international check-in area. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

For the time being, the glamour of traveling by air has been tarnished by labour shortages on airlines and at airports around the world — not just within Canada.

Despite the obvious challenges lately, Vancouver International Airport (YVR) still offers an above average experience for overall customer satisfaction amongst North American airports in 2022, based on a new study by Michigan-based consumer consultancy firm JD Power.

Under the “Large Airports” size category, YVR ranks 11th with 794 points out of 1,000 possible points — just behind the international airports of San Antonio (802 points) and Sacramento (798 points), but ahead of Nashville (790 points) and Washington Dulles (789 points). With 846 points, Tampa topped the list of “Large Airports,” which had a size category average of 784 points.

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YVR’s 2022 ranking represents a drop from its pre-pandemic 2019 ranking of sixth place with 801 points in the same size category.

However, YVR is, in fact, the only Canadian airport to rank above the average for not only the size category of “Large Airports” but any category in the 2022 study.

Calgary International Airport (YYC) ranked just below the average for “Large Airports,” with 780 points and a ranking of 17th. Montreal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (YUL) is further down the list, with a ranking of 22nd from 766 points. Philadelphia International Airport had the poorest “Large Airports” customer satisfaction with 729 points.

In the 2019 ranking, YYC was right on the dot with that year’s “Large Airports” average score of 765 points, while YUL was below average with 750 points.

No Canadian airports ranked in the “Medium Airports” size category.

Canada is represented in the “Mega Airports” ranking by Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ), which ranked 16th in this size category with 755 points — under the category average of 769 points. YYZ is behind Denver (759 points) and Houston George Bush Intercontinental (758 points), but ahead of Boston Logan (754 points) and Los Angeles (753 points). Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport had the best “Mega Airports” ranking, with 800 points. YYZ fell from its 2019 ranking of 14th, but went up to 745 points.

Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) ranked 13th with 764 points in 2019 — down from 2019’s ranking of 16th, but up from 740 points.

To determine the overall customer satisfaction, the study examined six factors, entailing terminal facilities, airport arrival/departure, baggage claim, security check, check-in/baggage check, and food/beverage/retail.

“Large Airports” are classified as airports with 10 million to 32.9 million passengers, while “Mega Airports” have 33 million or more passengers and “Medium Airports” have 4.5 million to 9.9 million passengers.

YVR ended pre-pandemic 2019 with an all-time record of 26.4 million passengers, and it was previously projected to see over 30 million passengers annually by the early 2020s. YVR saw only about seven million passengers for each of the annual totals for 2020 and 2021, but 2022’s figures to date have been highly promising, with the airport now recording about two million passengers monthly.

YVR is currently on target to reach about 20 million passengers for all of 2022, representing a much faster than expected pace of recovery.

“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 — and it is likely to continue through 2023,” said Michael Taylor, travel intelligence lead at JD Power, in a statement.

“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.”

The study found that overall customer satisfaction with North American Airports dropped by 25 points to 77 points in 2022 due to rampant flight cancellations and crowded terminals. Over half (58%) of airport travellers describe the airport terminal as severely or moderately crowded, which is similar to the 59% recorded in the same survey in 2019.

Almost a quarter (24%) of travellers said they did not make any food/beverage purchases at the airport due to the high prices. This is up from 20% in 2021 and 23% in 2019.

A shortage of airport parking space also caused satisfaction with surface vehicle parking lots to drop by 45 points between 2021 and 2022.

In 2022, YVR ended its 12 consecutive year streak of being named by Skytrax as North America’s Best Airport. SEA, which opened a massive USD$1 billion expansion earlier this year, has now claimed that title from its neighbour.

JD Power

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