Visitors to the UK feel “underwhelmed” with airport services in London, according to a new report.
The study of 14,000 visitors to the capital city over the past two years found the majority were “broadly satisfied” but were left feeling “underwhelmed” by services at Heathrow, Gatwick, City, Stansted and Luton.
Visitors were asked to rate aspects of the airports they arrived at using a 10-point rating scale with one being “very poor” and 10 being “very good”.
They were asked to rate their experience on: the welcome you received, the time it took to go through immigration/customs and transport connections to your onward destination.
London City was the only airport to achieve scores in the 8.0 category, while its rivals were often rated well below this threshold. Scores were lowest at each airport in terms of the perception of welcome, with Stansted rated lowest at 6.64 out of 10.
The London Visitor Opinion from LJ Research also found that London’s airports are regularly failing in satisfying visitors’ expectations at immigration and customs controls.
Unsurprisingly, London City received the highest average score for transport connections into the city while Luton airport was considered the most inaccessible of the airports evaluated.
LJ research managing director Sean Morgan said: “London is keen to attract leisure and business tourism from around the world and is in fact very successful doing so.
“However, a destination’s airports are hugely important for setting the tone of the overall visitor experience. The latest scores indicate that London visitors are underwhelmed by the city’s airports and that more efforts should be put into improving customer service for visitors.”