March 2016 Complaints About Airline Service Down From Previous Year and February 2016

WASHINGTON – Airline consumer complaints filed with DOT’s Aviation Consumer Protection Division in March 2016 were down 17.7 percent from March 2015 and down 5.0 percent from February 2016, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Air Travel Consumer Report released today.

In March, the Department received 1,429 complaints about airline service from consumers, down from the total of 1,736 filed in March 2015 and down from the 1,504 received in February 2016. For the first quarter of this year, the Department received 4,629 complaints, up 1.0 percent from the 4,583 filed during the first quarter of 2015.

The reporting carriers posted an on-time arrival rate of 81.5 percent in March 2016, up from the 78.7 percent on-time rate in March 2015, but down from the 83.6 percent mark in February 2016,

The consumer report also includes data on cancellations, tarmac delays, 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 a tally of aviation service complaints filed with DOT’s Aviation Consumer Protection Division by consumers regarding a range of issues such as flight problems, baggage, reservation and ticketing, refunds, customer service, disability, and discrimination. The consumer report also includes statistics on mishandled baggage reports filed by consumers with the reporting carriers, data on oversales, and information about the total number of animals that died, were injured, or were lost during air transport in March, as filed by the air carriers with the Aviation Consumer Protection Division.

Consumers may file air travel service complaints on the web at www.transportation.gov/airconsumer. This news release is available at https://www.transportation.gov/briefing-room/march-2016-complaints-about-airline-service-down-previous-year-and-february-2016. The full consumer report is available at www.transportation.gov/individuals/air-consumer/air-travel-consumer-reports. Detailed information on flight delays is available at www.bts.gov.

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