There were nearly 30,400 airline service complaints, inquiries and opinions from January through May 2024, a 26.5 percent decrease year over year for the period, according to U.S. Department of Transportation data released Thursday.
Of that total, more than 69.1 percent of those submissions—all complaints, inquiries and opinions—were for domestic carriers, 27.1 percent for foreign carriers and 2.6 percent for travel agencies.
DOT no longer provides separate complaint data as part of its monthly Air Travel Consumer Report. During the past three years, complaints made up an average of 91 percent of consumer submissions.
DOT in January received more than 6,900 submissions compared with nearly 11,600 in January 2023. Of those submissions, 64.7 percent concerned domestic carriers. One reason for the positive year-over-year comparison is the overlap with the Southwest Airlines disruption that started in late December 2022 and continued into January 2023.
February complaints declined to nearly 4,700 from nearly 7,300 a year prior, with 62.2 percent related to domestic carriers. March submissions also declined in to nearly 5,400 from nearly 8,200 in March 2023, with 70.3 percent pertaining to domestic carriers. April’s submissions were about 5,700, down from the more than 7,300 received a year prior, with 70.8 concerning domestic carriers.
Only May had an increase in submissions year over year, to about 7,750 from 7,000 received in May 2023. More than 75.2 percent concerned domestic carriers.
DOT changed its reporting because the former system needed additional time to review and process the “tens of thousands” of complaints received. DOT is in the process of modernizing its system and intends to revert to displaying detailed complaint data once it is operational, according to the agency.
