The latest J. D. Power report on North American Airports was released a few weeks ago. At first glance, you might assume the worst. All across North America, overall satisfaction with the airport experience is down from a year ago. Not one of the Mega airports (the busiest 19 airports) improved their scores from 2021. Only San Francisco International Airport managed to maintain its score from 12 months ago. The rest had negative numbers for overall satisfaction with the airport experience.
Among the Large and Medium airports, only a few airports were able to score higher in this latest data release. The overall effect was a decline in total industry airport satisfaction from 2021.
Here’s why that’s technically good news for the travel industry.
If we look closer at the data, we see that these lower satisfaction scores are mainly the result of the public desperately wanting to travel. Passenger volumes are up. Way up. This increase in traffic at the airports has driven scores down. After all, isn’t it more pleasant to travel when you can park close to the terminal, breeze through an empty TSA security check, and board a half-empty airplane?
While that may be a better overall customer experience, accommodating fewer passengers in the airport is not a viable business strategy. Those ghost town days during the pandemic are now gone. Parking spaces are now scarce, lines are long, and planes are packed. The flying public is back and in larger-than-expected numbers.
To state the obvious, these are problems an airport wants to have. Of course, there are still lingering issues with labor shortages among vendors. Dissatisfaction with the number of services available at the airport has also been an issue, a lingering after-effect of the pandemic. But sustained demand for air travel means a brighter future for airports.
The Major New York and New Jersey Airports
In the New York Metro area, we track three Port Authority airports: John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) and Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) are in our Mega category, and LaGuardia Airport (LGA) is in our Large category. Each of these three airports has seen recent successes, continuing challenges, and expected improvements.
JFK is something of a long-term success story. If we were to look at the J.D. Power rankings from five years ago, we’d find JFK ranked among the bottom four Mega airports. Today, JFK ranks among the top four Mega airports. Terminal improvements and introduction of many food, beverage, and retail concepts have been the major drivers of higher satisfaction among travelers flying through JFK.
It’s not an understatement to say it takes a great deal of effort and ingenuity to turn around a major airport like JFK. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and substantial airport improvements aren’t either. JFK’s renaissance is on par with the improvements we’ve seen at Detroit Metropolitan Airport (DTW) and Miami International Airport (MIA). Both of those airports rose from the depths of J.D. Power rankings and have been recent winners of our Mega Airport award.
As everyone in the tri-state region knows, LGA is also in the middle of a long-needed improvement plan. Once portions of the new LGA terminal opened, the airport saw a rise of 126 points in its terminal facilities score, a major increase. J.D. Power expects to see further increases as more and more of the planned construction is completed.
Newark Liberty International Airport is also experiencing major construction. Typically, we see an airport’s J.D. Power score decline just prior to and during construction phases. This is certainly true of EWR Liberty. Recent surges in passenger volumes put wear and tear on terminal buildings, and it makes no sense to renovate facilities you know will be completely replaced in a year’s time. J.D. Power expects EWR to struggle with overall satisfaction until improvements are brought online. The proposed improvements at EWR should have major positive effects for Newark Liberty.
What Does the Future Hold for North American Airports?
Prior to the pandemic, the airport industry in North America had tremendous plans to increase capacity and offer a wide range of new services, exciting new food and beverage concepts, and a greater ability to handle more traffic, both passenger and aircraft. Those plans were somewhat delayed during the pandemic and are hampered, in part, by the ongoing labor shortage and price inflation.
With some minor exceptions, these multi-billion-dollar improvement projects are proceeding. Airport projects are extraordinarily lengthy undertakings. As an example, Atlanta Hartsfield’s master improvement plan is expected to be complete by 2042. That’s 20 years from now!
Better days are ahead for the airport industry. Terminal facility improvements will allow airports to better handle the expected passenger volumes and larger aircraft loads. Travelers will have access to interesting experiences in the airport. As J.D. Power research shows, passengers are willing to spend more of their own money on quality food, beverage, and retail. For those facilities and leadership teams that get that formula right, the next decade will be an interesting—and rewarding—time to be in the airport business.
