Consumer Complaints About Airline Service Drop in First Quarter of 2003

Contact DOT 38-03 Bill Mosley 202-366-5571

Monday, May 5, 2003 -- Consumers filed far fewer complaints with the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) in the first quarter of 2003 than during the first three months of last year, according to the department's monthly Air Travel Consumer Report which was issued today.

During the first three months of this year, the department received 1,673 air service complaints from consumers, a drop of 45 percent from the 3,044 complaints filed during the first quarter of 2002. Consumers filed 539 complaints in March, 47.1 percent fewer than the total of 1,019 filed in March 2002 but 22.5 percent more than the 440 tallied in February 2003.

The drop in complaints may be due in part to reductions in air traffic that have led to fewer flight delays, contributing to better on-time records and fewer passenger complaints about flight problems. In addition, monthly meetings between DOT's Aviation Consumer Protection Division and representatives of major airlines have been focused on improving service to customers.

In addition to consumer complaint information, the report also includes data about flight delays, cancellations and mishandled baggage for March and the first quarter of 2003, and involuntary denied boarding, or bumping, data for the first quarter of this year.

Flight Delays

According to information filed with the department's Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), the 17 carriers reporting on-time performance posted an 82.6 percent on-time record in March, better than February's 76.6 rate. Skywest Airlines had the best on-time arrival rate in March at 89.2 percent, followed by American Airlines in second place at 86.9 and Southwest Airlines third at 86.0. Atlantic Southeast Airlines had the lowest percentage of on-time flights at 71.5, with Atlantic Coast Airlines ranked 16th at 71.8 percent and ATA Airlines (formerly American Trans Air) 15th at 74.7 percent. For the first three months of this year, the carriers posted an overall on-time arrival rate of 81.0 percent.

The report contains a list of regularly scheduled flights that were late at least 80 percent of the time. In March, three flights were on this list, all operated by Atlantic Southeast: flight 4871 from Atlanta to Panama City, FL, late 93.55 percent of the time; flight 4847 from Key West, FL, to Atlanta, late 80.65 percent; and flight 4551 from New York JFK to Atlanta, also late 80.65 percent.

The report contains a note reminding consumers that flight delays can be caused by a variety of factors. The data on which this report is based do not identify the causes, only the occurrence, of flight delays. The carriers that report the delay numbers will be required, beginning in June, to report the causes of delays to BTS. The causal numbers will be available in the August report.

These official on-time data are distinct from the data compiled by DOT's Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which records delays while aircraft are under control of the air traffic control system (i.e., from actual gate pushback time to actual gate arrival time). FAA data cover some of the delays caused by weather and volume, for example, but do not cover delays at the gate such as those caused by aircraft mechanical problems, crew unavailability or many weather conditions affecting flights before they depart. The FAA data are useful for managing the air traffic control system but are not designed to measure airline passenger delays.

Flight Cancellations

The consumer report also includes BTS data on the number of domestic flights canceled by the reporting carriers. In March, the carriers canceled 1.7 percent of their scheduled domestic flights, much better than February's 4.0 percent cancellation rate. Atlantic Coast had the highest percentage of canceled flights in March at 4.9, followed by Atlantic Southeast at 3.1 and United Airlines at 3.0. JetBlue Airways had the lowest percentage of cancellations at 0.2. Continental Airlines had the next-lowest percentage of cancellations at 0.8, followed by AirTran Airways, also at 0.8 percent but a fraction of a percentage higher than Continental.

Mishandled Baggage

The 17 U.S. carriers reporting flight delays and mishandled baggage data posted a mishandled baggage rate of 4.37 reports per 1,000 passengers in March, much better than February's 4.96 rate. For the first three months of this year, the 17 carriers recorded a mishandled baggage rate of 4.76 reports per 1,000 passengers.

Bumping

The report also includes airline reports of involuntary denied boarding, or bumping, for the first quarter of 2003. The 14 U.S. carriers who report on-time and mishandled baggage data who are also required to report their bumping records posted a bumping rate of .90 per 10,000 passengers for the quarter.

Complaints About Treatment of Disabled Passengers

The report also contains a tabulation of complaints filed with DOT in March against specific airlines regarding the treatment of passengers with disabilities. The department received a total of 24 disability-related complaints in March, a decrease of 56.4 percent from the 55 complaints filed in March 2002, although slightly more than the 22 received in February 2003. For the first three months of this year, consumers filed 77 disability-related complaints, 41.2 percent less than the 131 received during the first quarter of 2002.

Complaints About Discrimination

In March, the department received three complaints alleging discrimination by airlines due to factors other than disability - such as race, religion, national origin or sex - a 91.2 percent drop from the total of 34 recorded in March 2002 and half as many as the total of six registered in February 2003.

Consumers may file their complaints in writing with the Aviation Consumer Protection Division, U.S. Department of Transportation, C-75, 400 7th St., S.W., Room 4107, Washington, D.C. 20590, by e-mail at airconsumer@ost.dot.gov, by voice mail at (202) 366-2220 or by TTY at (202) 366-0511.

The department reminded consumers who want on-time performance data for specific flights to call their airline ticket offices or their travel agents. This information is available on the computerized reservation systems used by these agents. Detailed flight delay information is also available on the BTS site on the World Wide Web at http://www.bts.gov.

The Air Travel Consumer Report can be found on DOT's World Wide Web site at http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/. It is available in "pdf" and Microsoft Word format.