Passengers have elected Air China and Hainan Airlines as the best carriers on the mainland last year.

And they chose Chengdu, Shenzhen, Shanghai Pudong, Xiamen and Dalian as the "most satisfying airports", giving them the gold prizes.

Conducted by the Customer Working Committee of China Association of Civil Aviation, the poll covered about 60,000 passengers. Passengers were asked to choose the nine biggest airlines by the number of passengers they carried and 34 airports that handled at least 1 million passengers.

"In general, the passengers gave a higher score to China's civil aviation industry than in 2005," Committee Director Liu Yimei at a press conference in Beijing yesterday. The overall customer satisfaction index for last year was 74, an increase of 2.2 points over 2005.

Most of the respondents spoke highly of the carriers' air attendance service, which got 82.7 points.

But they were not satisfied with the way the airlines handled flight delays, giving it only 75.5 points. The respondents hoped the airlines improved communication with their passengers, especially when flights were delayed.

They wanted the airlines to improve the quality of on-flight food and drinks, and fasten their check-in process, too. Most of the passengers, however, praised the attitude of the airport staff and the check-in service.

The most wanted improvement in airports was addition of more entertainment centers. They hoped to see improvements in the transport system in and outside airports, guide signs in terminals and the environment.

(China Daily 02/02/2007 page3)