Todd Hollander Market Research

Consumer complaints about airline service soared 107 percent in July, the highest level reported for that month in five years.

The U.S. Department of Transportation fielded 1,717 complaints in July, up from 831 in July 2006, according to the agency’s Air Travel Consumer Report.

According to industry analysts, frustrations were caused by delays that affected almost one-third of flights in July, severe weather in the northeastern United States, and an increasingly impersonal customer service system.

Following years of losses, airlines are now filling planes to record levels. When disruptions occur, rebooking problems cascade across the system, which has less flexibility than in past years.

Betsy Talton, a spokesperson for Delta Air Lines, which saw its consumer complaints rise to 171 in July from 77 a year earlier. said Delta is trying to adjust its flight schedule by canceling flights when it knows far enough in advance that bad weather will force extensive delays.

American Airlines recently added five to seven minutes to the scheduled time of flights at major airports to reduce the number of flights classified as late. Flights are considered on time if they are within 15 minutes of their scheduled arrival.

The 70 percent on-time arrival rate for all U.S. airlines in July was the worst on record for that month. Airlines blame an antiquated air traffic system for many of the delays, and in August, Delta sent an electronic letter to its customers urging them to lobby Congress for more funds.

US Airways received the most complaints (267) in July, a rate of almost five complaints per 100,000 passengers flown. Southwest Airlines was the least cited carrier with 33 complaints, a rate of 0.34 complaints per 100,000 flown.

Delta’s complaint rate was 2.44 per 100,000.

Almost 45 percent of the complaints were about flight problems, including cancellations, delays or other deviations from the schedule. Mishandled bags accounted for 17.8 percent of the DOT complaints.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 11th, 2007 at 4:54 pm and is filed under Customer Satisfaction. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.