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Table 1-64: Passengers Boarded and Denied Boarding by the Largest U.S. Air Carriers(a) (Thousands of passengers)

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  1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 (R) 2014 2015
Boarded 420,696 429,190 445,271 449,184 457,286 460,277 480,555 502,960 514,170 523,081 543,344 477,970 467,205 485,797 522,308 516,553 552,445 567,740 576,476 548,041 595,253 591,825 600,774 599,405 535,551 613,141
Denied boarding,b total 628 646 764 683 824 842 957 1,071 1,136 1,070 1,120 900 837 769 747 597 674 685 684 719 746 626 598 494 467 552
Voluntary 561 599 718 632 771 794 899 1,018 1,091 1,024 1,062 861 803 727 702 552 619 621 620 651 681 578 539 440 418 505
Involuntary 67 47 46 51 53 49 58 54 45 46 57 39 34 42 45 45 55 64 64 67 65 48 59 54 49 46
Percent denied boarding 0.15 0.15 0.17 0.15 0.18 0.18 0.20 0.21 0.22 0.20 0.21 0.19 0.18 0.16 0.14 0.12 0.12 0.12 0.12 0.13 0.13 0.11 0.10 0.08 0.09 0.09

KEY: R = revised.

a Data include nonstop scheduled service between points within the United States (including territories) by U.S. air carriers with at least 1% of the total domestic scheduled service passenger revenues and operate aircraft with a passenger capacity of more than 60 seats. In 2014, the air carriers were Hawaiian, Jetblue, Delta, Virgin America, Alaska, American, United, Southwest, Frontier, Envoy, Expressjet , and Skywest. Before 1994, carriers included both majors and national airlines, i.e., airlines with over $100 million in revenue.

b Number of passengers who hold confirmed reservations and are denied boarding ("bumped") from a flight because it is oversold. These figures include only passengers whose oversold flight departs without them; they do not include passengers affected by canceled, delayed, or diverted flights.

NOTES

Since merging with Delta, data for Northwest Airlines are included under Delta as of January 2010.

United Airlines revised its Denied Boarding quarterly reports for January 2011 to March 2011, April 2011 to June 2011, July 2011 to September 2011 and October 2011 to December 2011, after the submissions were published in the ATCR. This table reflects these revisions.

AirTran Airways revised its Denied Boarding quarterly report for October 2011 to December 2011, after the submissions were published in the ATCR. This table reflects this revision.

Effective January 2011, Comair and Pinnacle Airlines are no longer ranked in this table. Totals for January – December 2010 reflect the deletion of Comair and Pinnacle’s data for that quarter.

Effective January 2012, data of the merged operations of United Air Lines and Continental Airlines are combined. Effective January 2012, data of the merged operations of ExpressJet Airlines and Atlantic Southeast Airlines are combined.

Endeavor Air, formerly Pinnacle Airlines, was ranked for the first time in 1st Quarter of 2013.

Effective January 2014, the American Airlines and US Airways data are combined as American Airlines; the Southwest Airlines and AirTran Airways data are combined as Southwest Airlines.

SOURCE

U.S. Department of Transportation, Office of Aviation Enforcement and Proceedings, Aviation Consumer Protection Division, Air Travel Consumer Report (Washington, DC: Annual February Issues), Passengers Denied Boarding by U. S. Airlines, available at http://www.dot.gov/airconsumer/air-travel-consumer-reports as of July 14, 2016.