The findings, by research company Global Reviews, showed that Australian airlines have a lot of catching up to do on their quality of Internet offerings before they reach worldwide standards.
-Whilst many anomalies at first appear to be relatively minor irritations, they serve to waste precious customer time and lead to frustration with the brand," Global Reviews founding director Adam Goodvach said.
The survey evaluated an airline's booking engine, customer service quality, security and trust, policy documentation, general content and the frequent flyer system.
It found that 79 percent of customers preferred Ansett Australia's online service over arch rival Qantas. Air New Zealand's online service was rated second, one point ahead of Qantas.
Richard Branson's Virgin Blue scored 64 percent customer satisfaction, while the failed airline Impulse came in at 48 percent.
The study found that the quality of Internet offerings varied between the carriers with up to 48 hours passing before emails were answered. In several cases, Air New Zealand failed to answer some correspondence.
According to Global Reviews founder, Dr Adir Shiffman, airlines need to make the most of the Internet by not only allowing tickets to be booked online but enabling customers to perform other tasks as well, like submitting lost luggage claims.
Shiffman believes the Australian airlines have not optimised the quality of their booking systems to date.
