How can Hartsfield improve?
What can Hartsfield-Jackson do to improve passenger satisfaction?
The airport fell to No. 10 in the just released J.D. Power satisfaction study — down from No. 8 in 2008, AJC staffer Kelly Yamanouchi reports.
The study of North American airports 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.
Hartsfield’s largest areas of decline were airport accessibility and check-in and baggage check, Yamanouchi reports.
What should be done?
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112 comments Add your comment
Keith
February 21st, 2010
2:10 pm
All you people complaining would be the first to complain, once again, if the City were to SPEND money to correct these items in such a poor economy which such poor budget constraints. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t…with many of you commenters!
Is the airport perfect…no. Is it pretty darn good considering it handles almost 90 million people a year (a figure that most every other airport in the world cannot come close to)…yes! You people talk about CLT and DCA and whatever else…only ORD and LHR in the entire world come anywhere close to handling the number of people that ATL handles.
A lot of the problems…customer no-service and such…are out of the control of the airport as these are typically employees of Delta Air Lines or an individual concessionaire.
Stephen
February 21st, 2010
2:30 pm
first of all, I am a pilot based in atlanta. nobody gets more frustrated with the service in atlanta than your ATL based flight crews. those long waits for gates, the slow service at the gate, the attitudes experienced by everybody that is employed AT the airport is attrocious and we have to experience it day in and day out every work day.
i agree with the previous statements about the employees not being hired by the city of atlanta. they work for all different vendors and companies within the airport. it is simply the pool of workers that they have to hire from in atlanta. delta, airtran and all the others would love to have smiling hard workers but they simply cant find or keep those people employed at the airport. for the wages those people are paid nobody WANTS to work there anyway. would YOU want to work on the ramp loading thousands of bags a day outside exposed to all the weather for $9/hr? or how about working at the ticket counter or gate where all you hear is people screaming and b****ing at you acting like its your fault for their inconvenience. part of the low wages and hence poor customer service is due to the whole state of the airline industry these days. apart from the economic downturn the airline idustry is in a horrible state. when passengers start paying more than $100 bucks for a trip to the west coast then maybe service will improve. when adjusted for inflation ticket prices have gone down drastically in the past 20 years.
im not saying that customer service shouldnt be good even with poor wages and workers. it frustrates me to pull up to a gate and have to explain to passengers every time what is going wrong when people should be doing their jobs. however, people also need to realize it takes ALOT more than they could ever realize to run an airport and an airline and their success is solely in the hands of passengers. youre buying tickets for next to nothing.
Alex
February 21st, 2010
9:46 pm
One word should suffice: Privatize
Wanda Kenworthy
February 21st, 2010
11:49 pm
I just arrived home from a travel from Atlanta to AZ. I am wondering why they got away from an ALL Inclusive. WE didn’t ask them to take this away from us. We don’t like to have to weigh our bags and pay for them. We don’t like starving to death. We don’t like all the people that can’t afford to pay for their luggage and carry it on and hold the rest of us up for hours. Bottom line, we don’t like change. We want what we have always had “Customer Service”. For goodness sake….go back to adding this into our ticket prices and allow us some dignity while we travel with the masses of people at this airport. It is horrible and we all HATE going thru there.
Percy
February 22nd, 2010
1:01 am
I fly through Atlanta Airport at least 13-15 times a year, and sometimes the service is horible. I look at it this way also, If I was dealing with thousands of people during a 8 hours day, I would probably have a nice chip on my shoulder. I don’t know what it is like to provide customer service, because I know I cant deal with peoples attitudes. I give the employees in the airport Kudos. However sometimes the employees have to self check themselves, and understand what there job is and its importance to thier family.
Areas to Improve:
Inform them police to stop harassing people, they are the worst thing the airport has to offer. They are clearly rude and disrespectful to the people trying to pick up Family or Friends.
Also that double pick up of international luggage is probably the dumbest thing I ever seen.
Overall the Airport is not that bad, try going to these Airports outside of our country you will see rude!
Matt
February 22nd, 2010
2:14 am
As somebody who travels through Hartsfield 2-4 times a month, I will be the lone voice to stick up for it. About 75% of the complaints here have nothing to do with the airport. Delta baggage fees, room in coach, Delta customer service, etc. On the things the airport DOES have control over, they’ve become much better. I used to get lunch/dinner after arriving because I knew the luggage would take so long, but a couple of times now it’s beaten me to the carousel. The security lines are also much better. I usually fly out Monday mornings and it has been a long time since I’ve had a substantial wait. There’s been a couple of bad times at the airport, sure, but 90+ percent of the time I’m pleased with the airport considering how much tougher it is for them compared to some small town airport with 10 gates or less.
harry
February 22nd, 2010
2:29 am
For those of you complaining about a lack of a cell phone lot, I suggest parking at the International convention center. I do it all the time, and it takes about a minute to be at the curb to pick someone up.
iwillnotsubmit
February 22nd, 2010
3:56 am
I have flown in and out of 62 airports on 5 continents and the best are in the Far East. ATL should take a cue from PEK (new terminal), CAN, SZX, or ICN. To be efficient movers of people requires the airport to have seperate floors for arriving and departing passengers.
John
February 22nd, 2010
8:44 am
TSA, TSA and Concourse E TSA! Add video monitors with instructions like the Vegas airport. All previous dedicated lanes are gone. Come on guys ! Who puts themselves in the stupid traveler line? Put back first class and Sky Club lines! Concourse E is the saddest welcome Atlanta could give international travelers. Makes us look like a bunch of idiots! Add an dedicated airport exit train!
Michael
February 22nd, 2010
10:01 am
What could they do? Fire 99% of everyone who works with the public at Hartsfield and the airlines (especially Delta who has apparently started hiring flight attendants out of prison half-way houses). I’ve never seen a more surly bunch of people in my life. The security and many of the other people (especially some of the concession & retail clerks) who work at the airport are nothing but street thugs who have the social graces of a pig. The people who check you in through international arrivals are even worse. They have the attitude that EVERYONE is up to something illegal. Crack a smile once in a while. It won’t hurt you. On second thought most of those people’s faces would probably break open and fall apart if they cracked a smile.
Kevin
February 22nd, 2010
2:34 pm
Hartsfield is one of the few large international airports in the world that does not offer complimentary baggage carts and wi-fi, which is just plain embarrassing. That said, it is obvious that it takes way too long to retrieve baggage from the carousel and the international terminal is an exhausting joke. Also, I’m the new international terminal will solve the baggage re-check procedure that is a tiresome chore. That is if the terminal ever gets built.
Steve
February 24th, 2010
3:16 pm
I honestly cannot believe the complaints I hear on this blog about the airport. As someone who flies almost every week, I can faithfully say that I haven’t had any trouble with baggage at Hartsfield. In fact, my bag almost always beats me to the baggage claim area. I will admit that since I fly during peak times, it is likely that the airport is well staffed during these hours, hence the lack of delay for my bags. I have also never waited for a gate assignment upon landing there. And if you’re flying international, how do you expect to get your bags so quickly? Don’t you have to go through immigration first, get your bags, and then do customs? Sorry, but when I fly international, I always plan on 2-3 hours after my flight to get out of there.
@Justine-parking rates? Atlanta is actually far cheaper than some other airports I’ve been to. Try going to Detroit–$25/day to park there and $31/day at Chicago’s O’Hare airport! $14 to park in Atlanta is a deal! And, if $14 it too steep, how about driving to the nearest Marta station and paying only $8/day and avoid all of the hassles with parking? By the time you drive to the airport, park in a deck, and walk to the terminal, you’ve spent nearly the same amount of time as getting on the stupid Marta.
Same with car rental. While Atlanta is fairly expensive, try renting a car in D.C., Philly, Chicago, Detroit, or New York. And come on folks, there’s a FREE skytrain to take you to the car rental facility. It’s a 7 minute ride. If you can’t build in an additional 7 minutes to your schedule, you have serious problems.
I agree with the lack of FREE wi-fi in the airport. It isn’t a problem unique to Atlanta. Most major airports make you pay for internet access and it’s a complete rip-off. Also in agreement with the cellphone lot. I’m hoping now that they’ve built the new car rental facility that they will use the old land for some sort of cell lot.
Pickup and drop-off is a disaster simply because at most other major airports, they have the upper level for drop-off and the lower level for pick-up. They already have two levels in Atlanta, why not fix this problem?