During this year’s travel chaos, which has included an influx of passenger demand, airlines have been hit hard. From surging oil prices to lack of staff (pilots and ground crew) and other issues, airlines have struggled to handle their passenger’s luggage.
According to the DOT’s recently released August Air Travel Consumer Report, the worst airline to handle their passengers’ checked luggage was American Airlines. Alaska Airlines ranked second among the worst offenders with Jet Blue as third. Their data set was from January-June 2022.
The American Airlines network, which included ‘branded codeshare partners’ in this report, mishandled 8.7 out of every 1000 bags, which came out to 454,351 bags. Alaska Airlines was second with 7.2 out of every 1000 bags, 94,000 in total, and Jet Blue 5.3 out of every 1000 bags, 53,785.
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On the other end of the spectrum, Allegiant Air topped the list as the best airline with only 1.6 bags mishandled per 1,000, 5,466 bags. Rounding the top three best airlines were Hawaiian Airlines at 3.1 bags per 1,000, 9,084 bags, and Frontier Airlines at 3.6 bags, 17,009.
To define mishandled baggage, the report used the definition of “number of check bags that are lost, damaged, delayed, and pilfered, as reported by or on behalf of the passenger, that was in the airline’s custody for its reportable domestic nonstop scheduled passenger flights.”
On top of baggage issues, the industry is being plagued by delays to which Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg called flight ‘unacceptable’. In the letter he noted that 24% of US domestic flights were delayed over this January to June time period and that he expects airlines to, “at a minimum, provide meal vouchers for delays of 3 hours or more and lodging accommodations for passengers who must wait overnight at an airport because of disruptions within the carrier’s control.”
The full report is divided into sections (Flight Delays, Mishandled Baggage Wheelchairs and Scooters, Oversales, Consumer Complaints, Customer Service Reports to the Transportation Security Administration, and Airline Reports of the Loss, Injury, or Death of Animals During Air Transportation).