Complaints against U.S. airlines in the first quarter of 2015 are up by 15% over 2014. The March total was more than 27% from February.
The U.S. Transportation Department issued a 53-page report that outlines the rising case of complaints against various airlines. Flight problems were the most subjects among the complaints filed by U.S. air travelers.
Complaints in March soared more than 55% in March from a year earlier. The report recorded 1,733 complaints from U.S. airline travelers, travel agents and tour operators for the month of March.
More than one-third of consumer complaints about U.S. airlines stemmed from flight problems, including cancellations, delays and missed connections. Among the carriers facing the largest number of flight-problem complaints were American Airlines, United Airlines, Frontier Airlines and Spirit Airlines.
Apart from these complaints, the next big problems reported were fares, customer service and baggage problems. Despite the surge in March complaints, the report said the airline on-time arrival rate improved to 78.7% from 77.6% a year earlier and 72.8% in February. The cancellation rate climbed to 2.2% of domestic flights from 1.9% a year earlier. But the March rate was down from 4.8% in February.
