Along with airline safety, airline service also is declining.
Complaints lodged against U.S. airlines hit another record in 2024, rising by nearly 9 percent, even though passenger volume rose by only 4 percent compared with 2023, according to “The Plane Truth 2025,” U.S PIRG Education Fund’s newest analysis of U.S. Department of Transportation data..
Last year was the fourth year in the last five that complaints against U.S. carriers increased to new highs. Air travelers filed nearly 67,000 complaints with the Transportation Department about problems including canceled flights, lost baggage, and stalled refunds.
“Travelers are ticked,” Teresa Murray, consumer watchdog director for U.S. PIRG Education Fund and author of Plane Truth 2025, said in a statement. “It’s clear they’ve found their voice and understand that speaking out matters.”
Travelers expect airlines to do better, Murray said, adding complaints over the years helped get dozens of new passenger protections passed by Congress in May 2024.
Some passenger complaints came from flight cancellations and delays, which increased in 2024 after improving in 2023. In 2024, airlines delayed or cancelled nearly 1.7 million flights – about 22 percent.
The analysis also found:
- For the third year in a row, Frontier had the most complaints per 100,000 passengers among the 10 largest airlines, considerably worse than the carrier with the second-highest ratio, Spirit. On the other end, Southwest and Alaska had the fewest complaints.
- Airlines in 2024 experienced 437 domestic tarmac delays of more than three hours. That’s the most in one year since the Tarmac Delay Rule took effect in 2010, and is up from last year’s 289 delays.
- The number of travelers involuntarily bumped dropped slightly. More than 10 times the number involuntarily bumped volunteered to give up their seats on overbooked flights. Among the top 10 airlines and their partner airlines, about 2.7 million checked bags, wheelchairs or scooters were mishandled, generally meaning they were lost or damaged.
The report also looks at what travelers can expect in 2025 as the busy summer travel season begins. Global passenger volume had been expected to increase by 6.7 percent this year compared with 2024, according to the International Air Transport Association. Passengers on U.S. airlines have increased year over year since 2009, except during the covid year of 2020, hitting new records the last two years.
But with economic uncertainty and a decline in international tourists, some of the largest airlines, including Delta, Southwest, and United, say they plan to cut the number of flights in the months ahead because demand could slow. If they do reduce flights and demand remains strong, however, look for extra-crowded cabins and airports, more missed connections, and another record year for complaints, Murray said.
“It’s more important than ever that travelers plan ahead, take steps to protect themselves and know their rights if something goes wrong,” U.S. PIRG Education Fund President Faye Park said. “As we’ve seen, airlines don’t always do the right thing automatically. We all need to continue to push the airlines, regulators and lawmakers to do more to protect us.”
