O’Hare, Midway rank low in J.D. Power airport survey

Passengers remain more dissatisfied with O’Hare International and Midway airports than many of their peer airports, according to a new survey, as travelers await the start of a rebuild of one of O’Hare’s terminals.

Both Chicago airports ranked below average for customer satisfaction among similarly-sized airports, according to the J.D. Power 2023 North America Airport Satisfaction Study, made public Wednesday. But both also improved in the rankings from last year, as overall satisfaction with the U.S. and Canadian airports rose.

Among the challenges Chicago’s airports face in further improving their satisfaction scores could be getting construction started on a key phase of an overhaul of O’Hare, and improving local food and shopping options, said Mike Taylor, managing director of travel, hospitality and retail at J.D. Power. And that could have broader repercussions, as J.D. Power found more satisfied passengers are likely to spend more money at the airport.

“Travelers in the last 20 years want to go to an airport and they’re willing and wanting to spend more on experiences they can only have in that city or that airport,” he said.

The upticks in passenger satisfaction in Chicago came as customers were more satisfied nationwide with airport experiences, despite crowded terminals and weather-related delays and cancellations, J.D. Power found. Construction improvements and investment in food, beverage and shopping options could be behind the trend, Taylor said.

At O’Hare, an uptick in the satisfaction score could be tied to a slower return of passengers since the COVID-19 shutdowns than at other airports, he said. The more crowded an airport, the less happy customers tend to be, so a slower return of passengers could have allowed O’Hare to climb in the rankings. But taking people out of an airport won’t work as a long-term plan, Taylor said.

For example, in July, the most recent month for which data is available, 6.9 million passengers passed through O’Hare, which was about 84% of July 2019 levels, according to Chicago Department of Aviation data.

Nationwide, the Transportation Security Administration reported the number of people passing through security checkpoints in July was about 99% of July 2019 levels.

But harming O’Hare’s ranking could be the impending construction of a new Global Terminal and two satellite concourses, Taylor said, part of a rehab and expansion of O’Hare whose price tag has risen to $12.1 billion. While an expansion of Terminal 5 opened earlier this year, construction on the new Global Terminal has not yet begun in earnest. Taylor said it’s common for airport authorities to decline to invest in improvements shortly before a terminal is scheduled to be rebuilt because it doesn’t make sense to spend money on something that will soon be overhauled.

And the lowest score O’Hare received was for its airport facilities, Taylor said.

By contrast, the study found a jump in passenger satisfaction at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, where an overhaul of the airport was substantially completed in 2022.

Chicago Department of Aviation spokesman Kevin Bargnes said preliminary work for the two satellite concourses that will accompany the new Global Terminal began in March, and construction is set to begin in 2024. The Global Terminal, the final piece of the project, is scheduled to be finished in 2032, several years later than initial projections.

At Midway, the number of passengers who traveled in July was higher than pre-pandemic. But there, like at O’Hare, more Chicago-specific shopping and dining could help boost the airport’s score, Taylor said.

“Those location-specific things, that are Chicago foods, really would make a better experience at the Chicago airports,” he said.

Bargnes said new concessions planned for O’Hare’s Terminal 5, including local brands such as The Hampton Social, Butcher and the Burger, Bar Siena, The Dearborn and Metropolis Coffee, are scheduled to open in the coming months.

At Midway, planned new concessions, including another Garrett Popcorn, Connie’s Pizza and M Burger, are scheduled to begin opening next month, Bargnes said.

A new security checkpoint area has also doubled the number of passengers that can be screened each hour and reduced wait times, Bargnes said.

Midway was also dinged by survey respondents for being difficult to get to. Among the most common ways of getting to the airport, nearly one-third of survey respondents reported getting dropped off at Midway, 20% reported driving and parking, 16% took ride-share and 15% took public transit, Taylor said.

Bargnes touted other magazine rankings where O’Hare and Midway earned higher marks. Tuesday, aviation data firm OAG listed O’Hare among the top-10 most connected airports in the world and Midway among the top-25 most connected domestic hubs, though both slipped from pre-pandemic spots.

OAG Chief Analyst John Grant said the number of international destinations served at O’Hare had grown in recent years, but other airports were improving faster.

The annual J.D. Power study was based on 27,147 passenger surveys from U.S. or Canadian residents who passed through at least one North American airport, and was conducted between August 2022 and July 2023. It measured terminal facilities, airport arrival and departure, baggage claim, security check, check-in and baggage check, and food, beverage and retail.

In the mega airport category, which included O’Hare and other airports with 33 million or more passengers per year, Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport achieved top ranking.

In the large category, which included Midway and other airports with between 10 million and 32.9 million passengers annually, Tampa International Airport earned top marks.

sfreishtat@chicagotribune.com