DOT: September Air Complaints Lower but Persistent

September 2022 consumer air complaints were down 15.6 percent compared with August 2022 numbers but remain about 380 percent higher than pre-pandemic September 2019 levels, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The agency received 6,115 complaints in September 2022 versus 1,258 in September 2019. About 57 percent of the September 2022 complaints were against U.S. carriers, 36 percent against foreign carriers, and about 7 percent were against travel companies, according to DOT. Flight problems—cancellations, delays or other deviations from airline schedules—accounted for nearly 33 percent of the complaints. Refunds at 21 percent and baggage at nearly 19 percent followed.

Still, though carriers mishandled about 177,300 bags in September, the rate of about 0.48 percent was lower than the August 2022 rate of 0.64 percent and slightly lower than the 0.47 percent rate from September 2019. 

U.S. airlines operated more than 571,000 flights in September, about 88 percent of the number from September 2019 and 2 percent more than were operated in September 2021. For the month, the 10 reporting network carriers scheduled more than 580,000 domestic flights, of which 8,858 were canceled, or about 1.5 percent. This figure is an improvement over the 2.5 percent of flights that were canceled in August 2022 and is lower than the 1.7 percent of flights canceled in September 2019.