Jetstar ranks as the worst airline in the world, with lengthy delays and poor service to blame

ONE in three Jetstar passengers cop flight delays and the average hold up is nearly four hours, landing the airline an embarrassing ranking.

LOW-cost airline Jetstar has been rated as the worst in the world by travellers who blame long delays and lack of cost transparency as their biggest gripes.

About one in three Jetstar passengers reported flight delays and the average hold up was nearly four hours behind the scheduled time, new international findings have shown.

The results were compiled by 11 consumers group globally including Australian consumer watchdog Choice — they quizzed 11,000 passengers who had travelled in the past year.

The findings showed Qantas was ranked as the best of the national carriers (ranking 36), ahead of rival airline Virgin Australia (51) and Jetstar (73).

Jetstar was ranked the worst in the world by customers who were plagued by late flights.

A Jetstar spokeswoman said the airline would always put safety before a schedule.

The company said it’s average time delay is 20 minutes.

Emirates took the crown as the best airline in the world.

Tigerair was not included in the survey because the sample size of passengers was too small.

Customers rated airlines on a range of criteria including punctuality, checking in, boarding, treatment by staff, comfort on-board, meals, safety and value for money.

Choice spokesman Tom Godfrey said Jetstar’s international rock-bottom rating should be “a real wake up call for the airline”.

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“Jetstar failed to fly, they are bottom of the pack when it comes to satisfaction,’’ he said.

“Across the board we see they are failing to perform and consumers are unhappy about their excessive fees, the airlines aren’t clean and they are just not running on time.

“Consumers are unhappy, the airlines are not treating them the way they should and there is clear breaches of Australian consumer law — it’s an area we think the regulator needs to look at.”

Choice spokesman Tom Godfrey (pictured) said Jetstar’s “rock-bottom rating should be a wake-up call for the airline”.

Mr Godfrey said excessive booking surcharges which were finally dumped last year and pre-tick optional areas that “trick consumers” into buying things they don’t need were too significant bugbears among passengers.

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A Jetstar spokeswoman said the airline was working on improving the airline experience for their customers and continued to offer jetsetters a low-cost travel option.

“We know how important it is to get customers to their destination on time, and we recognise there is room for improvement and our team is doing a lot of work behind the scenes,’’ she said. “Weather is often the source of delays, particularly in the more tropical destinations we operate to and we’ll always put safety before schedule.”

Federal Government figures released in March showed Virgin achieved the highest on-time figures for arrivals (86.7 per cent) and departures (88.4 per cent), followed by Qantas with 86.4 per cent on arrivals and 88 per cent for departures.

SATISFACTION WITH AIRLINES (out of 10)

1. Emirates 8.29

2. Avianca 8.17

3. Qatar Airways 8.15

4. Luxair 8.1

5. Singapore Airlines 8.1

6. Azul Brazilian 8.08

7. Thai Airways International 8.02

8. Cathay Pacific 7.94

9. TAROM 7.79

10. Vietnam Airlines 7.79

36. Qantas 7.24

51. Virgin Australia 7.05

73. Jetstar 6.01

Source: Choice

Originally published as Jetstar ranks as the worst airline in the world, with lengthy delays and poor service to blame