Airline complaints, delays piled up in June, DOT says

The truth is, even as airlines have enjoyed lower fuel costs and record profits, while charging higher fares and cutting in-flight amenities, they’re socking us with more fees.

In June, there were two domestic delays that are now under scrutiny: JetBlue Airways Flight 2417, from Orlando to Austin, which was delayed for nearly four hours on June 17, and Southwest Airlines Flight 2230, from Salt Lake City to Baltimore, which was delayed for just over three hours on June 23.

In June of 2015, there were 2,052 complaints from consumers about the airline service, which is an increase of 47.3 percent when compared to the 1,393 complains from June 2014. According to the report, overall complaints about air travel rose to 9,542 in the six-month period between January and June 2015, up 20 percent from the same period in 2014 (when 7,935 complaints were lodged). Almost a quarter of its regularly scheduled flights were late 70 percent of the time or more, a threshold the transportation department uses to define chronically late. “It’s also the fact that seats are getting smaller and passenger space is getting smaller”.

To be sure, the number of complaints may have risen, in part, because more people are flying.

Despite the fact that customer service is not necessarily a major factor for travelers when considering airlines, there has still been an upward trend in that department.

At the top of the list of passenger gripes were cancellations, delays and missed connections, accounting for 3,107 passenger complaints. Baggage mishaps came in second, with 1,417 complaints, followed by reservation/ticketing/boarding issues (1,282) and customer service (1,121).

“There are pretty strong incentives to make sure delays are limited, but a lot of those complaints are out of an airline’s control”, Lewis said.

Weather, for instance, is beyond anyone’s control, let alone an airline, which may be forced to delay flights due to the forces of nature, ranging from heavy rains to heavier snowfall.

That is the worst on-time performance by a larger airline in 10 years.

Transportation department also breaks down the data by airline, giving each a customer happiness rate based on the number of complaints it receives per 100,000 passengers it flies. The law of supply and demand will more than likely take precedence when it comes to air travel.