October 2022 consumer air complaints were down 12 percent from September levels but remain above pre-pandemic levels, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.
The agency received 5,379 complaints in October versus 6,115 received in September. However that also represents an increase of 372 percent from the 1,139 complaints received in October 2019. For October, 56.2 percent of the complaints were against U.S. carriers, 37 percent were against foreign carriers, and 7 percent were against travel companies.
The most common reason for a complaint, at 26.5 percent, was cancellations, delays or other deviations from airlines’ schedules. The second-highest category at 23.4 percent concerned refunds, while baggage issues accounted for 18.6 percent of complaints.
U.S. airlines operated more than 590,000 flights in October, about 86 percent of those operated in October 2019 and up 1.3 percent year over year. That figure also was up 3.3 percent compared with September 2022.
For the month, the 10 reporting network carriers scheduled more than 595,300 domestic flights, of which 0.8 percent were canceled. This flight figure is nearly even with the number scheduled in September 2021, when 2.1 percent were canceled. In October 2019, carriers scheduled nearly 693,000 flights with a cancellation rate of 0.9 percent.
[email protected] (Donna M. Airoldi)
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