Hartsfield-Jackson ranks 10th for airport satisfaction

By Kelly Yamanouchi

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport is tops in passenger counts worldwide, but ranked 10th out of 19 large airports in North America in a new airport satisfaction study.

J.D. Power and Associates gave Hartsfield-Jackson a score of 666 out of 1,000 in its 2010 North America Airport Satisfaction Study. That's slightly lower than the airport's score of 678 with a No. 8 ranking in J.D. Power's last edition of the study, in 2008.

The highest-ranked large airport in the new study was Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, with a score of 705.

The J.D. Power study is based on surveys of passengers and considers six areas: airport accessibility, baggage claim, check-in and baggage check process, terminal facilities, security checkpoints and concessions. Some of the factors evaluated by J.D. Power are under the control of the airlines, the Transportation Security Administration or other entities, rather than the airport administration itself.

Hartsfield-Jackson's largest areas of decline were airport accessibility -- including the attractiveness of airport grounds, ease of dropping off and picking up passengers, signs, traffic flows and parking -- and check-in and baggage check, said J.D. Power vice president Stuart Greif.

According to Greif, services like airport Wi-Fi are not as important for airport satisfaction as getting passengers in and out of the airport easily and efficiently. Passengers' satisfaction with airports overall increased in 2010, with an average score of 690, up from 675 in 2008.

The large airport category, which includes Hartsfield-Jackson, had lower average scores than medium and small airports.

"Smaller airports that have less complexity and congestion tend to score higher overall," Greif said.