Complaints from vacationers to the US authorities are at their highest stage for the reason that COVID pandemic, when airways have been gradual to refund their funds.
Air journey grew to become extra depressing final 12 months, if the variety of shopper complaints filed with the U.S. authorities is any measure.
The Transportation Division mentioned Friday it acquired almost 97,000 complaints in 2023, up from 86,000 the 12 months earlier than. The division mentioned there have been so many complaints that it took till July to kind by way of the complaints and compile the numbers.
That is the very best variety of shopper complaints about airways since 2020, when airways have been gradual to problem refunds to clients after the coronavirus pandemic shut down air journey.
The rise in complaints got here although airways canceled far fewer U.S. flights — 116,700, or 1.2 p.c of the entire, final 12 months, in contrast with about 210,500, or 2.3 p.c, in 2022, in line with FlightAware information. Delays, nevertheless, remained stubbornly excessive final 12 months, at about 21 p.c of all flights.
Greater than two-thirds of all complaints final 12 months involved U.S. airways, however 1 / 4 involved overseas airways. A lot of the relaxation involved journey companies and tour operators.
Complaints concerning the therapy of disabled passengers elevated by greater than 1 / 4 in comparison with 2022. Discrimination complaints, whereas few in quantity, additionally rose sharply. Most have been associated to race or nationwide origin.
Airways obtain many extra complaints from vacationers who do not know learn how to file a grievance with the federal government or do not hassle to take action, however airways do not publish these numbers.
The Transportation Division is revamping its complaint-receiving system, which the company says will assist it higher oversee the airline business. Nonetheless, the division is at present releasing grievance figures many months late. It didn’t launch figures for the second half of 2023 till Friday.