Complaints Against U.S. Airlines Rose Sharply Last Year

(RTTNews) - Consumer complaints against U.S. airlines rose sharply last year, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation's Air Travel Consumer Report released Tuesday.

Airline passengers filed 11,364 complaints against U.S. airlines in 2014, an increase of 17.3% from 9,690 complaints filed in 2013, the report showed.

Frontier Airlines had the highest consumer complaint rate among the 12 largest U.S. carriers in 2014, followed by United Airlines. On the other hand, Alaska Airlines and Southwest Airlines had the lowest consumer complaint rates.

In 2014, 3.91 complaints per 100,000 enplacements were filed against Frontier and 2.71 per 100,000 against United, while only 0.42 complaints per 100,000 enplanements were filed against Alaska and 0.53 per 100,000 against Southwest.

Out of 465 passenger complaints filed against Frontier last year, 168 were for "flight problems," defined by DOT as "Cancellations, delays, or any other deviations from schedule, whether planned or unplanned."

The report also showed that airlines last year reported the lowest number of tarmac delays longer than three hours on record. In 2014, there were 30 domestic flights with tarmac delays longer than three hours at U.S. airports, compared to 84 in 2013 and a whopping 868 in 2009, the last full year before the DOT's domestic tarmac rule went into effect. There were just nine international flights with tarmac delays longer than four hours at U.S. airports in 2014.

"These tarmac delay rules are meant to protect passengers and it appears that the airlines have gotten the message," said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. "We have aggressively enforced, and will continue to aggressively enforce, our tarmac delay rules to ensure that carriers have adequate resources, such as staff and equipment, to minimize passengers' exposure to lengthy tarmac delays, and that passengers are treated with respect before, during, and after their flights."

For 2014, the carriers posted a mishandled baggage rate of 3.62 per 1,000 passengers, up from 3.22 in 2013.