Which? reveals the UK’s best and worst airlines for customer satisfaction, as add-on fees cast doubt on budget carrier value claims
In Which?’s annual customer satisfaction survey of more than 5,500 travellers, Jet2 topped the table in the short-haul category, while Singapore Airlines was top for long-haul.
Ryanair was the worst-performing short-haul airline and received a score of 55 per cent. The budget carrier scored two stars for its booking process, boarding, customer service and cabin environment and just one star for seat comfort. One customer said: “The plane is dirty and the seats are awful”.
Ryanair scored three stars for value for money, fewer than four other short-haul carriers - Jet2, Lufthansa, TUI and Aer Lingus. One Ryanair customer said: “It is billed as a budget airline but they make money from extras which far outweigh price savings on other flight companies.” Over a third of Ryanair's customers said something went wrong with their journey.
In the consumer champion’s survey, Wizz Air also finished near the bottom (59%). The airline scored two stars in the majority of categories and three stars for value for money, however one customer said Wizz Air was “consistently terrible and overpriced”. Customers also complained about poor customer service and a lack of communication around delays.
easyJet scored 67 per cent overall and three stars for its booking process. The budget airline’s punctuality has improved over the last two years, and it has cancelled fewer flights. However, it received just two stars for customer service, seat comfort and cabin environment. The airline, like Ryanair, received three stars for value for money.
Which? has repeatedly found that the headline cost of flights from low cost airlines can shoot up once cabin bags are added. These prices are often not displayed until towards the end of an exhaustive booking process, making calculating the full cost time-consuming and confusing.
Last month, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) made a ruling against easyJet as a result of Which?’s recent investigation into cabin bag pricing where, even after checking hundreds of prices, the consumer champion was unable to find any flights where the bags could be taken on for anything close to the £5.99 claimed.
Turkish Airlines (66%), Loganair (65%) and Vueling Airlines (63%) were also at the wrong end of the short-haul table.
Jet2 (76%) is the only Which? Recommended Provider for short-haul travel and proved itself to be the big winner for reliability. Jet2 cancelled far fewer flights at the last minute than most of its rivals and clinched four stars for its booking process, customer service and value for money. One customer said: “Compared with other budget airlines they give you a generous luggage allowance, which makes such a difference.” More than three quarters of passengers (76%) said that there were no problems with their flight - compared with 63 per cent for Ryanair.
Other strong performers were Lufthansa (73%), Norwegian (73%), British Airways (72%), KLM (72%), TUI (72%), Aer Lingus (71%) and Air France (69%).
British Airways scored 72 per cent in both the short haul and long haul categories. BA scored four stars for customer service and has also seen a big improvement in punctuality, with 74 per cent of flights departing on time, up from 65 per cent in the equivalent period last year, according to data from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).
For long-haul, Singapore Airlines received the highest customer score of 81 per cent. The airline earned five stars for its cabin environment and customer service. It was one of only two airlines to receive five stars for customer service. One customer said: “Cabin staff were very kind and accommodating. Food was excellent and the whole cabin environment was comfortable.” The airline missed out on a Which? Recommended Provider endorsement because of its no-show clause, meaning if you miss your outbound flight the airline will cancel your return ticket, or charge you extra to amend your trip.
Other top performers were Emirates (80%), Virgin Atlantic (79%), Qatar (78%), Air Canada (77%), KLM (75%) and Etihad Airways (74%).
Emirates, a Which? Recommended Provider (WRP), excelled with its smooth booking process, seat comfort, food and value for money. Customers raved about the customer service. One said: “It felt like I was flying first class, even though I booked economy.”
Virgin Atlantic, also a WRP, was praised for its staff and cabin atmosphere, outperforming transatlantic rivals like Delta and United. The airline also received five stars for customer service. One Virgin customer said: “they are simply fantastic to travel with.”
In contrast, Aer Lingus received the lowest score for long-haul travel (65%). The airline scored just two stars for seat comfort and cabin environment - crucial categories for longer flights. It did, however, manage three stars for value for money, customer service, booking process, boarding process, and food and drink.
US airlines were also among the weaker performers, with Delta (70%), American Airlines (69%) and United Airlines (68%) all near the bottom of the table.
Rory Boland, Editor of Which? Travel said:
“It's outrageous to see Ryanair and Wizz Air openly scoff at the poor experiences of their own customers. They love to blow their own trumpet about the number of passengers who fly with them, but on many routes, there is simply no other choice.
“Many other passengers fly with them because of the enticingly low headline fares. But ridiculously expensive charges for baggage and other add-ons mean they are no longer guaranteed to be the cheapest option.
“We’ve repeatedly found that airlines that include baggage and seat allocation in their fares can actually work out cheaper overall. Fly with anyone else, if you can.”
ENDS
Right of Replies
A spokesperson for easyJet said: “50 million customers in the UK will choose to fly with easyJet this year for our choice of destinations, great value fares and friendly service from our fantastic crew. We allow customers to pay for only what they want and no more which enables us to keep fares low for everyone. With around 40% of our customers choosing to travel with just the fare and our customer satisfaction scores at a ten year high, it’s clear that customers continue to value this choice and our service. Given this survey is not weighted, it simply isn’t representative when comparing with airlines who carry far fewer passengers.”
A spokesperson for Ryanair said: “Neither we nor our 208m passengers pay any attention to these made-up manufactured surveys or their fake results. Every passenger booking a flight has a choice and last year 208m consumers chose Ryanair, while nobody reads or pays any attention to Which? fake surveys.”
A spokesperson for Wizz Air said: “Once again, Which’s survey relies on a tiny sample size. It surveyed 259 people, which is only 0.002% of the 12 million passengers carried on our UK flights in 2025. No credible organisation can claim that such a sample is representative. Our strong passenger numbers - which rise every year - clearly show that travellers value WIZZ’s low prices and industry-leading operational performance. We’re continuing to deliver against the commitments outlined in our £12 billion Customer First Compass initiative. From October 2024 to December 2025, customer satisfaction rose by eight percentage points. At the same time, our flight completion rate in the UK was 99.7% - consistently among the best in the industry - while our on-time performance increased by 14% year-on-year.
“This year, we look forward to welcoming even more passengers on board Europe’s youngest and most modern fleet, taking advantage of our low prices on our biggest ever summer leisure network to many new destinations in Spain, Greece, and France.”
Aer Lingus did not respond to a request for comment.
Notes to Editors:
Which? surveyed a total of 5,518 adults in the UK who flew economy class for leisure from a UK airport in the previous 12 months and told us whether they took long-haul or short haul routes. Fieldwork was carried out online by Deltapoll between October and November 2025. Long-haul results are based on 2,618 experiences reported by 1,902 consumers. Short-haul results are based on 6,894 experiences reported by 4,646 consumers. The survey was distributed to a representative sample of people who flew economy class for leisure from a UK airport in the previous 12 months, the final data has not been weighted and is not representative of the target population.
Sample size in brackets. WRP = Which? Recommended Provider. On-time/last-minute cancellations Percentage of all scheduled flights departing from the UK within 15 minutes of time due, according to the Civil Aviation Authority (October 2024 to September 2025) or cancelled within 24 hours of scheduled departure in the same period. Where airlines have both UK and EU subsidiaries the results for both are combined. Seat pitch Distance between two rows in standard economy – measure of legroom, from Aerolopa. Food and drink ‘n/a’ in short-haul as a question only asked to those flying long-haul. Customer score combines overall satisfaction and likelihood to recommend the airline.
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