Airline complaints soar
Fliers have lots to complain about, and according to the annual Airline Quality Rating, they are. Complaints are up a whopping 60 percent over the previous year. The Associated Press reports that the rate of complaints more than doubled at US Airways and Comair and rose for 15 of the 16 airlines in the survey. The exception being Mesa Airlines. “The trend is bad, and it doesn’t look like it gets any better,” Dean Headley, an associate professor at Wichita State University and co-author of the study, told the AP. Other highlights from the study:
- The rate of consumer complaints about Mesa dropped by one-third and the airline also showed improvement in its rates of bumping passengers and mishandling bags.
- More than one-third of Atlantic Southeast Airlines flights were late, the worst on-time performance in 2007. The airlines also bumped passengers more often, at a rate of 4.5 per 10,000 passengers.
- JetBlue and AirTran were far ahead of their competitors in avoiding bumping passengers from flights, at 0.02 and 0.15 per 10,000 passengers, respectively.
- AirTran had the best baggage handling rate, at 4.06 mishandled bags per 1,000 passengers.
- American Eagle ranked last in baggage handling with 13.55 mishandled bags per 1,000 passengers.
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