Air travel complaints soar to nearly 100,000

The Transportation Department said Friday it received nearly 97,000 complaints in 2023, up from about 86,000 the previous year. The department said there were so many complaints that it took until July to sort through the files and compile the numbers.

It’s the highest number of consumer complaints against airlines since 2020, when they were slow to refund customers after the coronavirus pandemic shut down air travel.

The increase in complaints came even as airlines canceled far fewer flights in the United States — 116,700, or 1.2% of the total, last year, compared with about 210,500, or 2.3%, in 2022, according to FlightAware data. However, delays remained stubbornly high last year, at about 21% of all flights.

So far this year, cancellations remain relatively low – around 1.3% of all flights – but delays still hover around 21%.

Last year, more than two-thirds of the complaints involved U.S. airlines, but a quarter involved foreign airlines. Most of the rest involved travel agencies and tour operators.

Complaints about the treatment of passengers with disabilities increased by more than a quarter compared to 2022. Complaints about discrimination, while few in number, also increased sharply. Most concerned race or national origin.

Airlines receive many more complaints from travelers who don’t know how or don’t bother to complain to the government, but carriers don’t disclose those numbers.

The Department of Transportation is modernizing its complaints system, which the agency says will help it better oversee the airline industry. However, the department is now releasing complaint figures several months late. It only released figures for the second half of 2023 on Friday.