This is the airline that Americans hate flying most (it's not United)

But that's not because of recent headlines.

There's been a lot of turbulence in the airline industry lately, causing customers to be slightly more critical of what airline they choose to fly. While United remains one of America's least favorite airlines, but Spirit Airlines ranks No. 1 in that category.

That's according to a new report of the best and worst airlines from American Customer Satisfaction Index performed its survey on the best and worst airlines. To be fair, results were based on thousands of customer interviews conducted over 12 months, ending March 2017--that's before the United incident.

The survey looked at the industry results for travel, and while passenger satisfaction is up compared to last year, airlines are still in the bottom third of industries tracked by the ACSI. "Apparently, low ticket prices are not enough of a trade-off for low service quality," ACSI Director David VanAmburg says in the press release. "Particularly as most airlines now also compete on price."

Passengers favored JetBlue for its low-cost business model and cabin upgrades. Southwest held the same spot as last year while Alaska got a bump from what ACSI believes is the Virgin American merger. Spirit makes up for its cheap flights by requiring customers to pay for other amenities, like printing a boarding pass at the airport. United, which made headlines after security violently remove a passenger who refused to give up his seat on an overbooked flight, ranked third as the worst airline.