The U.S. Department of Transportation has released its latest batch of complaint data for its Air Travel Consumer Report.
The department had last released detailed airline and ticket agent complaint data in November in 2023 for the months of March through May of that year, a much delayed release schedule compared to other data that the department publishes in the monthly report.
The DOT said that it received nearly 96,900 submissions in 2023, compared with with more than 86,000 in 2022.
Of those in 2023, nearly 67,700 concerned U.S. carriers, about 25,000 concerned foreign carriers and nearly 3,200 concerned travel companies.
The DOT also detailed the number of disability-related and
discrimination-related complaints it received. The agency said it still
is in the process of revising how it processes air travel service
complaints for airlines and travel advisors "given the continued high
volume" of such complaints.
It said it will provide more detailed data
for those categories "once its new modernized system is operational."
For each month from June through September 2023, the number of overall submissions received increased over the corresponding months in 2022. The percentage increases ranged from 8.3% to 65.5% year over year.
Between October and December, the number of submissions DOT received declined each month year over year. It declined 69.5% in December 2023 compared with December 2022, a month that included negative weather conditions and the Southwest Airlines meltdown during the holidays.
This article was adapted from a report by Business Travel News.