New information from the U.S. Department of Transportation exhibits whereas on-time information hasn’t modified with airways, the variety of complaints has gone up 296% in comparison with earlier than the pandemic.
Flyers should not proud of the airways and are voicing their complaints to the U.S. Department of Transportation.
In the July 2022 Air Travel Consumer Report (ATCR), the newest information exhibits that complaints practically tripled in May 2022 in comparison with the identical month in 2019.
Top Complaints Include Flight Disruptions and Lost Luggage
In May 2022 alone, the DOT acquired over 2,400 complaints from flyers, reflecting the continued chaos of the post-pandemic air journey rush. In May 2019, the company solely fielded 814 complaints, whereas flyers filed 1,220 complaints in May 2021 – over one 12 months into the pandemic.
While refunds had been the highest shopper criticism, flight issues had been the second most typical difficulty. Flyers filed 571 complaints about cancellations, 257 complaints on delays and 133 misconnection complaints. The remaining prime 5 criticism classes had been relating to reservations, ticketing and boarding, baggage, and airfares.
Although flyers expressed extra frustration with airways, the precise on-time efficiency was not a lot totally different in comparison with the identical month pre-pandemic. In May 2022, flights had been on time 77.13% of the time, in comparison with 77.9% in May 2019. The greatest causes for hold-ups embody air provider delays (outlined as delays “due to circumstances within the airline’s control,” together with crew issues), late arriving plane and nationwide aviation system delays. Only 1.9% of flights had been cancelled in May 2022.
The variety of mishandled baggage additionally elevated in comparison with the identical time final 12 months, resulting in a spike in complaints. Out of over 42 million baggage boarded on industrial plane, 237,828 had been mishandled, for a complete of 0.56 mishandled per 100,000 enplaned. American Airlines and their community mishandled probably the most baggage, with a complete of 76,059 had been “lost, damaged, delayed, or pilfered.” Delta Air Lines mishandled 44,972 baggage within the month, whereas Southwest Airlines mishandled 41,232 within the month.
Wheelchairs and scooters weren’t invulnerable to the losses. Over 1,100 mobility gadgets had been mishandled throughout the month, with probably the most misplaced by American. Southwest got here in second, whereas Delta mishandled the third most gadgets.
Data Comes After Flyers Share Stories of Frustrations with Media
The information comes as flyers are taking their complaints to the courtroom of public opinion and sharing their nightmare tales with the media. While one household says American tried to cost $30,000 in change charges, one other claims United’s cancellations and misplaced baggage value them $16,000 in changing objects.
Source: www.flyertalk.com”