PHOENIX — If you had an issue with a flight last year, you are far from alone.
According to a new report from the Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), complaints against airlines were up nearly 9% in 2024.
"Well, you might say, 'Oh gosh, maybe more people were traveling' - Nope. That wasn't it. The number of passengers was only up by about 4%," Teresa Murray, one of the authors of the report, explained.
She says many of those complaints likely came from flight cancellations and delays, which rose in 2024 after seeing some improvements the year before.
"When you're just talking percentage points, it amounted to 1.7 million cancellations and delays in 2024. So, if you were on one of those flights. It was not a good day," Murray added.
The area that saw one of the biggest jumps for complaints was tarmac delays of three hours or more on domestic flights.
"A lot of times, what we've seen with these just outrageous tarmac delays is it gets to the 3-hour, 3 and a half, 4-hour mark, and they're stuck on the plane, and they may or may not have air conditioning and they may not have access to food. If they're lucky, maybe the flight attendants are passing out water," said Murray.
The Plane Truth also found that certain airlines were much worse than others when it came to issues for travelers.
"Frontier's complaint ratio was twice as high as the next airline, which was Spirit," Murray added.
There were some areas of improvement.
"Mishandled bags and damaged wheelchairs and scooters, those percentages went down a little bit. So, they improved a little bit. So, that's good," said Murray.
The number of people involuntarily bumped from their flights also dropped slightly.
If you have an issue with a flight and you can't get a resolution from the airline, you can file a complaint with the Department of Transportation.
If you have a consumer problem, we want to hear from you! Email Consumer@ABC15.com.
