According to the consumer group, Ryanair was the worst-performing short-haul airline in the ranking. The airline scored two stars for its booking process, boarding, customer service and cabin environment and just one star for seat comfort. It scored three stars for value for money, fewer than four other short-haul carriers – Jet2, Lufthansa, TUI and Aer Lingus.
Over a third of Ryanair's customers said something went wrong with their journey. The Which? survey surveyed more than 5,500 travellers.
Wizz Air finished near the bottom of the ranking with a score of 59%. Wizz Air scored two stars in the majority of categories and three stars for value for money. easyJet scored 67% overall and three stars for its booking process.
easyJet's punctuality has improved over the last two years, and it has cancelled fewer flights. However, easyJet received just two stars for customer service, seat comfort and cabin environment, and three stars for value for money. Turkish Airlines (66%), Loganair (65%) and Vueling Airlines (63%) were also at the wrong end of the short-haul table.
The exact methodology Which? used to combine factors into overall customer scores has not been disclosed. Jet2 topped the table in the short-haul category in the Which?
survey. Singapore Airlines was top for long-haul in the Which? survey.
The plane is dirty and the seats are awful.
Which? has repeatedly found that headline costs of flights from low-cost airlines can shoot up once cabin bags are added. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) made a ruling against easyJet as a result of a recent investigation into cabin bag pricing by Which?.
Which? 90) claimed by easyJet. The specific add-on fees or charges that contributed to Ryanair and Wizz Air's low value-for-money scores are not detailed in the survey results.
Rory Boland, Editor of Which? Travel, commented on the broader industry context. '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,' Boland said. Survey participants provided vivid accounts of their experiences.
' Ryanair has strongly contested the survey's findings. Ryanair branded the Which? customer satisfaction survey for short-haul airlines as 'fake'.
A Ryanair spokesperson 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? ' Ryanair and its 208 million passengers do not pay any attention to these made-up manufactured surveys or their fake results, the spokesperson asserted.
It is billed as a budget airline but they make money from extras which far outweigh price savings on other flight companies.
This presents a direct contradiction: Which? reports Ryanair as the worst-performing short-haul airline based on its survey, while Ryanair brands the Which? survey as 'fake' and says nobody pays attention to it.
Wizz Air also slammed the Which? survey. 002% of the 12 million passengers carried on its UK flights in 2025.
A Wizz Air spokesperson elaborated, 'Once again, Which’s survey relies on a tiny sample size. 002per cent of the 12 million passengers carried on our UK flights in 2025. ' This criticism highlights another contradiction regarding the sample size.
The Which? survey surveyed more than 5,500 travellers overall, but Wizz Air claims the Which? survey for its airline relied on a tiny sample size of 259 people.
Research indicates these figures refer to different scopes: the over 5,500 is the total survey respondents across all airlines, while 259 is the subset who rated Wizz Air specifically. How many of the 5,500+ survey respondents were specifically rating Ryanair remains unclear. 7%.
How Ryanair and Wizz Air's customer satisfaction metrics compare to industry averages or other independent surveys is not addressed in the available claims. The exact ruling by the Advertising Standards Authority against easyJet regarding cabin bag pricing has not been specified. The survey results and the airlines' rebuttals underscore a fundamental tension between consumer-reported satisfaction data and commercial metrics like passenger volume cited by the carriers.