Airline performance plummets overall
Mishandled bags, rude or ineffective customer service and general flight problems led to sharply rising airline service complaints in May, says the US Transportation Department.
They were up almost 21 percent from the 879 complaints filed in April. That was also one-third higher than a year ago at the same time, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
Other categories of major complaints about service — refunds, fares and handling disabled travelers — also showed sharp increases.
Large airlines were the target of more complaints. American Airlines had the most with 147, followed by Delta Air Lines with 107 and United Airlines with 101. Continental Airlines, which merged with United but reports separately to the government, received 72 complaints.
"The actual number of complaints is 1.29 per 100,000 enplanements, a very small number," says Steve Lott, a spokesman for the Air Transport Association. He added that was out of a total of 55 million flights in May.
Other airline performance indicators monitored by the Transportation Department — the rate at which flights arrived on time and long delays on airport tarmacs — were also down in that month.
Bad weather triggered system-wide delays at key hub airports, and the nation's 16 largest airlines posted an on-time arrival rate of 77.1 percent in May. That's down from 79.9 percent a year ago but slightly better than April's 75.5 percent, the bureau's statistics show.
By David Wilkening
David
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