Zagat Says Fliers Prefer National, BWI Over Dulles

The people have spoken: They prefer Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall and Reagan National airports over Dulles International.

The 2007 Zagat Survey of airlines and airports, released yesterday, illustrates the public's deteriorating faith in the domestic airline industry.

The poll asked 7,498 frequent fliers to rate their international and domestic experiences. BWI and National ranked sixth and seventh, respectively, in overall domestic airport quality. Dulles came in 22nd out of 27 U.S. airports in the survey.

Since Zagat's first airline survey in 1990, the "overall quality" ratings of American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Northwest Airlines, United Airlines and US Airways have decreased between five and nine points on the survey's 30-point scale, Zagat found.

"It's a sign the major players in the airline industry are in trouble," said founder Tim Zagat.

Smaller, new carriers have risen to the top.

This year, Midwest Airlines, Virgin America and JetBlue were the top three among economy domestic airlines. Virgin America also ranked as the No. 1 premium domestic airline.

The results have arrived at an especially uneasy time for the industry. In the first nine months of the year, the industry has posted its worst on-time performance since it began collecting comparable statistics in 1995. Disgruntled passengers are lobbying Congress for a passenger's bill of rights, which would compensate people for bad air travel experiences.

According to the survey, 61 percent of the air travelers favored the enactment of such a bill of rights. Only 5 percent opposed it, and 34 percent didn't know what it was.