With Easter rapidly approaching and many Brits also starting to plan for their summer holidays, the best, and worst, airlines flying to and from the UK have been revealed in a new study. In research conducted over the last 12 months, the UK consumer champion, Which?, asked over 5,500 travellers about their airline experiences, including factors such as value for money, cabin environment and cleanliness, food and drink, seat comfort, customer service, delays and last-minute cancellations.

Which? then analysed the data to determine which carriers were the best or worst for overall experience and customer satisfaction in the UK. Some of the top performers include Jet2, which placed first for short-haul with an impressive 76% score, followed by Lufthansa and Norwegian. Other strong carriers for short-haul flights include British Airways, KLM, TUI, Aer Lingus and Air France.

For long-haul flights, Singapore Airlines took the crown with the highest rating overall at 81%. However, for the carriers at the other end of the scale, the findings are likely to be quite difficult to digest for many airline executives.

Irish carrier Ryanair was named the worst-performing short-haul airline overall, with a customer score of just 55%. The budget airline, whose CEO is Michael O’Leary, got a two-star rating for its booking process, boarding, customer service and cabin environment and just one star for seat comfort.

Despite being known for its cheap fares, Ryanair also earned just three stars on value for money, with one customer commenting: “It is billed as a budget airline but they make money from extras which far outweigh price savings on other flight companies,” according to MailOnline.

The experience inside a Ryanair aircraft was also heavily criticised, with one passenger penning: “The plane is dirty, and the seats are awful”.

Hungarian carrier Wizz Air followed as the second-worst, with a customer score of 59%, with two stars for its booking process, boarding, customer service, seat comfort and food and drink and three stars for its value for money, with customers claiming the airline was consistently terrible and overpriced”. Others felt that communication about delays was insufficient.

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Earning a slightly more favourable position in the ranking, low-cost giant easyJet scored 67%, receiving two stars for boarding, customer service, seat comfort and cabin environment. It earned three stars in the value-for-money category and was the sixth-worst overall.

Rory Boland, editor of Which? Travel, said of the research: “It’s outrageous to see Ryanair and Wizz Air openly scoff at the poor experiences of their own customers. They love to blow their own trumpet about the number of passengers who fly with them, but on many routes, there is simply no other choice.

“Many other passengers fly with them because of the enticingly low headline fares. But ridiculously expensive charges for baggage and other add-ons mean they are no longer guaranteed to be the cheapest option. We’ve repeatedly found that airlines that include baggage and seat allocation in their fares can actually work out cheaper overall. Fly with anyone else, if you can”.

In the long-haul category, Singapore Airlines, with its 85% overall rating, bagged five stars for customer service and cabin environment – the only one to do so. Emirates closely followed with 81%, then Virgin Atlantic, at 79%. Both carriers are Which? Recommended Providers, like Jet2, which topped the short-haul category with 76%.

According to the Daily Mail, a spokesperson for Ryanair said: “Neither we nor our 208m passengers pay any attention to these made-up manufactured surveys or their fake results.

“Every passenger booking a flight has a choice and last year 208m consumers chose Ryanair, while nobody reads or pays any attention to Which? fake surveys.”

A spokesperson for Wizz Air said: “Once again, Which’s survey relies on a tiny sample size. It surveyed 259 people, which is only 0.002 per cent of the 12 million passengers carried on our UK flights in 2025. No credible organisation can claim that such a sample is representative.

“Our strong passenger numbers – which rise every year – clearly show that travellers value Wizz’s low prices and industry-leading operational performance.

“We’re continuing to deliver against the commitments outlined in our £12billion Customer First Compass initiative. From October 2024 to December 2025, customer satisfaction rose by eight percentage points. At the same time, our flight completion rate in the UK was 99.7 per cent – consistently among the best in the industry – while our on-time performance increased by 14 per cent year-on-year.

“This year, we look forward to welcoming even more passengers on board Europe’s youngest and most modern fleet, taking advantage of our low prices on our biggest ever summer leisure network to many new destinations in Spain, Greece, and France.”

A spokesperson for easyJet said: “50 million customers in the UK will choose to fly with easyJet this year for our choice of destinations, great value fares and friendly service from our fantastic crew.

“We allow customers to pay for only what they want and no more which enables us to keep fares low for everyone. With around 40 per cent of our customers choosing to travel with just the fare and our customer satisfaction scores at a 10-year high, its clear that customers continue to value this choice and our service.

“Given this survey is not weighted, it simply isn’t representative when comparing with airlines who carry far fewer passengers.”