A record number of travelers complained about the airlines they flew with last year — and some carriers fared significantly worse than others when it came to cranky customers.
That’s according to a Tuesday report from the consumer advocacy group U.S. PIRG, which analyzed customer-complaint data collected by the Department of Transportation.
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Customers lodged an estimated 61,233 complaints against U.S. airlines in 2023, the public-interest group said — well above the previous record of about 47,600 filed the previous year.
The DOT data are typically released much earlier, Teresa Murray, the director of U.S. PIRG’s consumer watchdog office, told MarketWatch, but a high volume of complaints over the last couple of years has gummed up the works.
Complaints increased by almost 29% from 2022 to 2023, even though the number of passengers increased by less than half that amount.
“Airline travel is getting better overall,” Murray said in a statement. “But there are still too many horror stories about passengers unexpectedly having to sit in a terminal for hours, getting lousy customer service or being treated like a seat number instead of a person going on a long-awaited vacation or important work trip.”
The best and worst airlines, according to customer complaints
A few airlines stood out for high levels of customer dissatisfaction, which the DOT measures as a ratio of complaints filed per 100,000 boarded passengers.
The standout — and not in a good way — was Frontier ULCC, with a complaint ratio of 32.99, according to U.S. PIRG’s analysis. That was more than double the figure of the airline with the next-highest complaint ratio.
“We have been disappointed in our historical complaints but are pleased to have seen a recent drop,” Frontier spokesperson Jennifer De La Cruz said in a statement to MarketWatch, adding that “better operational reliability,” the reopening of the airline’s call center and elimination of fees have contributed to a drop in complaints.
Spirit Airlines SAVE and JetBlue JBLU also had complaint ratios in the double digits, at 14.76 and 13.32, respectively.
Spirit and JetBlue did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Read more: Airline stocks gain as daily travelers top 3 million on Sunday, exceeding 2019’s biggest day
Other airlines had much better rankings when it came to customer complaints. The carrier with the lowest number of complaints per customer was Alaska Airlines ALK, with a ratio of 2.34 complaints per 100,000 passengers.
Delta Air Lines DAL and Southwest Airlines LUV also had relatively lower numbers of customer complaints, with ratios of 3.64 and 3.61, respectively.
Southwest said it doesn’t verify the results of independent studies but responded to the DOT data included in the PIRG analysis. “We thank [our employees] for their continued commitment to providing friendly, reliable and low-cost air travel,” a spokesperson said.
A spokesperson for Alaska Airlines added: “We value the efforts of our amazing crew members who consistently go the extra mile to help ensure our guests have an enjoyable experience when flying with us.”
Delta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The frequency of airline delays is higher than it was last year, but flight cancellations have decreased. Murray said she expects to see airline customer complaints level off in 2024.
“The airlines are getting better,” she said, adding that the flight-cancellation rate for 2023 and the first half of 2024 is half what it was in 2022.
A record summer for travel
The high demand for travel that helped drive the recent spike in customer complaints has shown little signs of easing this year. More than three million people — a record — passed through U.S. airport security checkpoints on Sunday, according to the Transportation Security Administration.
Major U.S. airlines expect to ferry some 271 million passengers through the skies this summer, according to Airlines for America, a trade group. That would surpass the previous record, set in 2023.
Airlines have also been the subject of rule changes and regulatory actions in the last several months.
Earlier this year, the Department of Transportation issued new rules stating that airlines must issue cash refunds to customers when the companies “cancel or significantly change their flights, significantly delay their checked bags, or fail to provide the extra services they purchased.”
From the archives (May 2024): Airline passengers are now entitled to automatic cash refunds for canceled flights. Here’s how to get yours.
Congress also passed a new Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill aimed at bolstering passenger protections, shoring up staff and improving runway safety.
The airlines’ responses to these actions and implementation of new rules might influence the number of complaints for the year ahead, Murray told MarketWatch.
“Passengers are using their voice, and it’s working,” she said in a statement. “Congress and the DOT are paying attention to passenger complaints, as shown by new laws and regulations approved in the last three months.”
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