WASHINGTON – Airline consumer complaints filed with DOT’s Aviation Consumer Protection Division in March 2015 were up 55.1 percent from March 2014 and up 27.2 percent from February 2015, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Air Travel Consumer Report released today.
In March 2015, the Department received 1,733 complaints about airline service from consumers, up from the total of 1,117 filed in March 2014 and the 1,362 received in February 2015. For the first quarter of this year, the Department received 4,580 complaints, up 14.4 percent from the 4,002 filed during the first quarter of 2014. The Department routinely contacts individual carriers when it notices spikes or significant variations in complaint types or complaint levels in regulated areas.
The consumer report also includes data on tarmac delays, on-time performance, cancellations, chronically delayed flights, and the causes of flight delays filed with the Department’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) by the reporting carriers. In addition, the consumer report contains statistics on passengers denied confirmed space (oversales/bumping) as filed with BTS by the carriers, mishandled baggage, and disability and discrimination complaints received by DOT’s Aviation Consumer Protection Division. The consumer report also includes reports of incidents involving the loss, death, or injury of animals traveling by air, as required to be filed by U.S. carriers.
This news release is available at http://www.dot.gov/briefing-room/march-2015-complaints-about-airline-service-previous-year-and-february-2015. The full consumer report is available at www.dot.gov/individuals/air-consumer/air-travel-consumer-reports. Detailed information on flight delays is available at www.bts.gov.
