Airline complaints jump 270 per cent, according to US Department of Transport

America's Department of Transportation received 5862 complaints about airline services in June; a number that is 269.6 per cent higher than June 2019.

If you have kept up with travel news overseas, or travelled through the US, it may not be a surprise to learn that airline service complaints have risen over the last three years.

According to a recent Air Travel Consumer Report, the DOT received 34.9 per cent more complaints about airline services in June compared to May.

More than 5,860 formal complaints were lodged with the organisation in June. Most of these (57.7 per cent) were about US airlines, followed by overseas carriers (34.5 per cent) and 7.8 per cent were about travel companies.

Complaints had not only risen month-on-month but almost tripled compared to pre-pandemic.

Overall, the department has received more complaints in the first six months of 2022 (28,550) than in all of 2019.

As for why people were complaining, the largest cause for issue was airline reliability. Most complaints were related to cancellations and delays followed by refunds.

The majority of the complaints were related to cancellations, delays or refunds.

According to data, however, flights were just as likely to arrive on time in June 2022 as in 2019, with average on-time arrival rates of 73.5 per cent and 73.3 per cent respectively.

Alaska Airlines boasted the best on-time arrival rate (78.7 per cent) this June, while Hawaiian Airlines had the fewest cancellations (0.1 per cent).

Earlier this month, the Department of Transportation proposed a rule that would require airlines to refund passengers if their flight was delayed more than three hours. The department will also launch an interactive online tool that compares different airlines' delay and cancellation policies.