Airline complaints are any type of formal

complaint In legal terminology, a complaint is any formal legal document that sets out the facts and legal reasons (see: cause of action) that the filing party or parties (the plaintiff(s)) believes are sufficient to support a claim against the party ...

filed by an

airline An airline is a company that provides civil aviation, air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or Airline alliance, alliances with other airlines for ...

customer either to the airline responsible for the grievance or the government office responsible for overseeing the airlines national industry. Airline complaints generally arise out of problems experienced during

air travel Air travel is a form of travel in vehicles such as airplanes, jet aircraft, helicopters, hot air balloons, blimps, gliders, hang gliders, parachutes, or anything else that can sustain flight.

that were left unresolved.

Airline complaints in the US

According to th
Airline Quality Rating 2007
report, airline hassles in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

have increased since 2005. The rate of complaints, on the other hand, have remained roughly the same, with 0.88 complaints per 100,000, half of which were due to problems with flights or baggage. This may be due to passengers being more forgiving since

9/11 The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...

. However, there is also criticism about whether the number of official complaints truly reflects the experience passengers are encountering, considering the difficulty passengers have in finding out how to issue a formal complaint. Furthermore, complaints about airline complaints have increased in the US, showing that those who are able to complain, are dissatisfied with the results.

Airline complaints in Europe

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, air passengers have more rights than in the US and must be compensated by law for

overbooking Overselling or overbooking is sale of a volatile good or service in excess of actual supply. Overselling is a common practice in the travel and hospitality sectors, in which it is expected that some people will cancel. The practice occurs as an in ...

s, cancellations or flight delays. After this law (

Regulation 261/2004 The Flight Compensation Regulation 2004''(EC) No 261/2004is a regulation in EU law establishing common rules on compensation and assistance to passengers in the event of denied boarding, flight cancellations, or long delays of flights. It require ...

) was introduced in the EU in early 2005, complaints soared, as expected, since more compensation could be expected by passengers who officially complained. In fact, complaints related to cancellations increased 600% and complaints related to delays increased 500%,Complaints to airlines rocket after new EU rules - Home News, UK - Independent.co.uk
not surprisingly since those are categories where increased compensation took effect since the new law.

Airlines receiving most complaints

In the US,

Southwest Airlines Southwest Airlines Co., typically referred to as Southwest, is one of the major airlines of the United States and the world's largest low-cost carrier. It is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, and has scheduled service to 121 destinations in the U ...

had the lowest rate of complaints in 2006, with 0.11 complaints per 100,000 passengers, while

US Airways US Airways (formerly USAir) was a major United States airline that operated from 1937 until its merger with American Airlines in 2015. It was originally founded in History of aviation in Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh as a mail delivery airline called ...

and

United Airlines United Airlines, Inc. (commonly referred to as United), is a major American airline headquartered at the Willis Tower in Chicago, Illinois.

had the worst rate of complaints, both with 1.36 complaints per 100,000 passengers.

is also the US airline with the worst on-time performance, which might explain its rate of complaints.

Government agencies overseeing complaints

In the US, the Department of Transportation is responsible for the airline industry and has a specific division called the Aviation Consumer Protection Service that handles airline complaints. They also publish figures on the performance of major US airlines, which are freely accessible on their website. In the UK, the

Civil Aviation Authority A civil aviation authority (CAA) is a national or supranational statutory authority that oversees the regulation of civil aviation, including the maintenance of an aircraft register. Role Due to the inherent dangers in the use of flight vehicles, ...

can help passengers with complaints about an airline, where passengers have complained to an airline and not been able to resolve their complaint.

Alternative dispute resolution Alternative dispute resolution (ADR), or external dispute resolution (EDR), typically denotes a wide range of dispute resolution processes and techniques that parties can use to settle disputes with the help of a third party. They are used for ...

(for example

mediation Mediation is a structured, interactive process where an impartial third party neutral assists disputing parties in resolving conflict through the use of specialized communication and negotiation techniques. All participants in mediation are ...

adjudication Adjudication is the legal process by which an arbiter or judge reviews evidence and argumentation, including legal reasoning set forth by opposing parties or litigants, to come to a decision which determines rights and obligations between the ...

) is available for passengers travelling in and out of the UK. A list of airlines who have signed up to ADR is published on the CAA's website. In the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

, several member countries do not have specific offices to handle airline complaints.Airline Passenger Revolt Spreads to Europe
/ref> However, the Air Transport Portal of the European Commission handles airline complaints from member countries.

References

External links