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Joe and I live in the United States, as do the vast, VAST majority of our readers (yes, we can tell). Therefore, a good portion of what we write about is US-centric. However, we sometimes travel internationally, as do, not surprisingly, many of our readers.

One popular place many travelers visit is the United Kingdom. In fact, CNN reports that London was the 10th most visited city in the world in 2023. So although most Americans may be very familiar with what the best and worst airlines in the U.S. are (spoilers: as of their most recent publications, Forbes, Conde Nasté Traveler and NerdWallet all say Delta is best and, respectively, Southwest, Frontier and Frontier are the worst), they may not be as aware of the rankings of airlines across the pond.

Founded in 1957, Which? is a United Kingdom brand name that promotes informed consumer choice in the purchase of goods and services by testing products, highlighting inferior products or services, raising awareness of consumer rights, and offering independent advice (thanks, Wikipedia!). In many respects, it sounds as if it’s similar to the U.S.-based Consumer Reports.

In late February, Which? released a report of the best and worst economy airlines (short-haul and long-haul) for 2024.

They based their decisions on:

• On-time – Percentage of all scheduled flights arriving into the UK within 15 minutes of time due, according to the CAA (Oct 2022 to Sept 2023) 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
• Boarding – The boarding process – waiting time, queues etc
• Food and drink – Range and quality of on-board catering
• Customer service – On-ground and on-board staff
• Customer score – Combines overall satisfaction and likelihood to recommend the airline. All ratings for economy class travel.
• n/a  was also included in the scoring and indicates too few responses for this aspect to give a star rating.

They also included seat pitch, seat comfort, cleanliness, cabin environment and value for the money in their reason for final score.

In October 2023 Which? members told us about 10,755 flights in the past two years.

Stats for short-haul airlines

Short-haul flights, typically to various parts of Europe and the like, could potentially be used by Americans if they were arriving in the UK and continuing on to somewhere else. These are the best and worst short-haul airlines, according to Which?:

5 best short-haul airlines

1. Jet2 – Consumer score: 81%
2. Icelandair – 74%
3. Norwegian – 74%
4. Turkish Airlines – 73%
5. Loganair – 72%

5 worst short-haul airlines

1. Wizz Air – Consumer score: 44%
2. Ryanair – 47%
3. Iberia – 49%
4. Vueling – 53%
5. British Airways – 56%

Why they chose Jet2 as the best

Which? said that Jet2 has been regularly rated as the UK’s best airline by passengers in their survey. “Its five-star rating for customer service is exceptional for any airline, but especially one that’s competing with easyJet and Ryanair on budget holiday routes.” They also said that passengers said the cabins were clean and well maintained and boarding was well organized.

They continued that people who fly with Jet2 rarely have problems (80% said they had no problems at all), and when they do have issues, the airline is usually able to fix them with friendly efficiency.

Which? also said that although Jet2 may not always be the cheapest, your ticket includes a decent-sized carry on bag allowance (unlike easyJet and Ryanair) and passengers gave it 4 out of 5 starts for value for the money.

Why they chose Wizz Air as the worst

Ummm…because it sucks? 😉

Nah, seriously…Which? brought up 2022, when Wizz Air was summoned to court thousands of times because of unpaid refunds (they eventually paid about £1.24m [about US $1.57 million] in outstanding expenses refunds). They’re apparently doing better in that regard – they’ve paid what they owed. But Which? still doesn’t trust them. The airline has lots of other problems, as well. From Which?:

It’s the lowest-scoring airline, with one star for customer service and seat comfort and a customer score lower than Ryanair. Incredibly, 44% of passengers reported having some kind of problem – more than any other airline in our survey. High prices for luggage also mean that it’s not even that cheap for anybody taking a small case on board, which is surely most holidaymakers.

Stats for long-haul airlines

Although some of the long-haul airlines on Which?’s list primarily travel between the UK and Asia, the Middle East, etc., there are a few that carry passengers across the pond to the U.S. These are the best and worst long-haul airlines, according to Which?:

5 best long-haul airlines

1. Singapore Airlines – Consumer score: 83%
2. Emirates – 81%
3. Virgin Atlantic – 76%
4. Qatar Airways – 74%
5. Qantas – 71%

5 worst long-haul airlines

1. Lufthansa – Consumer score: 56%
2. Air Canada- 58%
3. American Airlines – 59%
4. British Airways – 59%
5. Air France – 60%

Why they chose Singapore and Emirates as the best

Which? said both airlines offered extraordinarily clean planes, excellent IFE and friendly staff. They noted that Emirates, in particular, had a great on-time record, with 3/4 of flights arriving less than 15 minutes late. Its one fault is its strict “no show” policy.

The rest of the story

Which? shows the full array of 22 short-haul and 17 long-haul airlines, along with how each scored in each category, on this page of its website.

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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary