US airline passenger complaints surge sky-high
Source: Agencies |
April 9, 2013, Tuesday
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US airline passengers are getting grumpier, and it's little wonder.
Airlines keep shrinking the size of seats to stuff more people onto planes, those empty middle seats that once provided a little more room are now occupied and more people with tickets are being turned away because flights are overbooked.
Private researchers who analyzed federal data on airline performance said in a report yesterday that consumer complaints to the Department of Transportation jumped by one-fifth last year, even though other measures such as on-time arrivals and mishandled baggage show airlines are doing a better job.
"The way airlines have taken 130-seat airplanes and expanded them to 150 seats to squeeze out more revenue, I think, is finally catching up with them," said Dean Headley, a business professor at Wichita State University who co-wrote the annual report.
The industry is even looking at ways to make today's small bathrooms more compact in the hope of squeezing a few more seats onto planes.
"I can't imagine the uproar that making toilets smaller might generate," Headley said, especially given that passengers increasingly weigh more than they used to. Nevertheless, "Will it keep them from flying? I doubt it would."
In recent years, some airlines have shifted to larger planes that can carry more people, but that hasn't been enough to make up for an overall reduction in flights.
The rate at which passengers with tickets were denied seats because planes were full rose to 0.97 denials per 10,000 passengers last year, compared with 0.78 in 2011.
It used to be in cases of overbookings that airlines usually could find a passenger who would volunteer to give up a seat in exchange for cash, a free ticket or some other compensation with the expectation of catching another flight later that day or the next morning. Not anymore.
"Since flights are so full, there are no seats on those next flights. So people say, 'No, not for US$500, not for US$1,000,'" said airline industry analyst Robert W. Mann Jr.
United Airlines had the highest consumer complaint rate of the 14 airlines included in the report, with 4.24 complaints per 100,000 passengers. That was nearly double the airline's complaint rate the previous year.
Airlines keep shrinking the size of seats to stuff more people onto planes, those empty middle seats that once provided a little more room are now occupied and more people with tickets are being turned away because flights are overbooked.
Private researchers who analyzed federal data on airline performance said in a report yesterday that consumer complaints to the Department of Transportation jumped by one-fifth last year, even though other measures such as on-time arrivals and mishandled baggage show airlines are doing a better job.
"The way airlines have taken 130-seat airplanes and expanded them to 150 seats to squeeze out more revenue, I think, is finally catching up with them," said Dean Headley, a business professor at Wichita State University who co-wrote the annual report.
The industry is even looking at ways to make today's small bathrooms more compact in the hope of squeezing a few more seats onto planes.
"I can't imagine the uproar that making toilets smaller might generate," Headley said, especially given that passengers increasingly weigh more than they used to. Nevertheless, "Will it keep them from flying? I doubt it would."
In recent years, some airlines have shifted to larger planes that can carry more people, but that hasn't been enough to make up for an overall reduction in flights.
The rate at which passengers with tickets were denied seats because planes were full rose to 0.97 denials per 10,000 passengers last year, compared with 0.78 in 2011.
It used to be in cases of overbookings that airlines usually could find a passenger who would volunteer to give up a seat in exchange for cash, a free ticket or some other compensation with the expectation of catching another flight later that day or the next morning. Not anymore.
"Since flights are so full, there are no seats on those next flights. So people say, 'No, not for US$500, not for US$1,000,'" said airline industry analyst Robert W. Mann Jr.
United Airlines had the highest consumer complaint rate of the 14 airlines included in the report, with 4.24 complaints per 100,000 passengers. That was nearly double the airline's complaint rate the previous year.
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