Skift Take
Passengers everywhere are hard to please, but because Asian passengers are willing to reward airlines by paying for passenger experience upgrades then they're more likely to get what they want.
Overall passenger satisfaction in Asia is lower than expected, but the causes of dissatisfaction among Asian travelers differ dramatically from those in the other leading aviation markets, North America and Europe.
Joe Leader, CEO of the Airline Passenger Experience (APEX) Association shared details of the organization's findings with attendees at the APEX Asia Conference in Singapore.
"We saw so much of a difference among Asian travelers that they really were not as highly satisfied as any of their counterparts in the rest of the world," Leader said, "which was surprising to us given the quality of the carriers in the region. Also we were surprised by their desire for entertainment and for comfort over space."
APEX finds that, overall, only 29% of Asian travelers report being "highly satisfied" with their air travel experience, compared with 39% of North American travelers and 37% of European travelers.
The primary sources of dissatisfaction for Asian travelers are with the ground experience. Only 30% of passengers are satisfied with the check-in process, 25% satisfied with their experience at the gate, and 28% satisfied with the boarding process.
Crowded and Comfortable
In the air, Asian travelers are generally more satisfied than international counterparts with the majority of passenger experience criteria measured by the APEX Association which ranges from ambient factors, such as overall aircraft cleanliness (74% satisfi
