As journey demand picked up post-pandemic, airways skilled main issues: A rise in mishandled baggage and passengers denied boarding.
In case your baggage was misplaced otherwise you had been denied boarding in 2022, you actually weren’t alone.
Revised information from the U.S. Division of Transportation reveals extra passengers had their baggage mishandled, or had been unable to board their flight, in 2022 in comparison with the prior yr.
American Led in Mishandled Baggage; Frontier Tops Involuntarily Denied Boarding
With the COVID-19 pandemic coming to an finish, extra flyers had been wanting to get again to the airport and go to their favourite locations as soon as extra. Nevertheless, information from the Transportation Division’s Air Journey Shopper Report suggests the aviation trade was not essentially ready for the frenzy.
General, mishandled baggage elevated to 0.64 luggage per 100 enplaned in 2022, up from 0.51. American Airways mishandled probably the most baggage, with 0.88 per 100 enplaned throughout their community. When you had been flying on an American mainline flight, your threat elevated to almost one bag mishandled per 100. Fellow Oneworld member Alaska Airways got here in second, with 0.72 mishandled luggage throughout their community per 100 loaded, whereas JetBlue got here in third.
The low-cost carriers had been the most effective at getting baggage to its last vacation spot in 2022. Main the way in which was Allegiant Air, which mishandled simply over 10,000 luggage of the 6 million loaded onto plane. Frontier Airways got here in third total, whereas Spirit Airways was fourth.
Though Frontier did an awesome job of dealing with baggage, the identical can’t be mentioned about overbooking flights. The Denver-based airline involuntarily denied 2.66 passengers per 10,000, placing them on the backside of the checklist in 2022. Southwest Airways – which skilled a main meltdown at the start of 2023 – got here in second with 0.56 passengers involuntarily denied boarding per 10,000 boarded. American was additionally within the backside three for involuntary denials, with 0.46 passengers turned away on the gate per 10,000 throughout their community.
Delta Air Strains, Allegiant, and Hawaiian Airways had been capable of accommodate probably the most passengers throughout 2022. Whereas Allegiant had zero involuntary denials, Delta and Hawaiian collectively involuntarily denied six passengers.
Airline Complaints Skyrocket in 2022
With extra points throughout carriers, client complaints to the Transportation Division considerably elevated. Flyers issued a complete of 16,876 complaints to the company in 2022, a rise of practically 400% in comparison with 2021. Carriers based mostly within the U.S. obtained probably the most complaints, with 13,912 filed. Solely 2,452 complaints had been levied in opposition to international carriers.