Complaints about airlines soar in new federal report

Complaints about airlines jumped 70 percent from a year ago, according to a new Transportation Department report.

The department’s June 2017 Air Travel Consumer Report, which measured data from April 2017, recorded 1,909 complaints about airline service from consumers compared with 1,123 complaints in April 2016. Complaints also were up 69 percent from March 2017.

The complaints mostly involved flight problems – cancellations, delays and missed connections – but also included baggage problems, ticketing and reservations, and customer service.

The report also said the industry had an on-time arrival rate of 78.5 percent in April 2017, down from 84.5 percent in the same month a year ago.

Hawaiian, United and Alaska airlines had the highest on-time arrival rates in April, while Virgin America, JetBlue and regional carrier ExpressJet had the lowest on-time arrivals.

This story was originally published June 15, 2017 at 10:47 AM with the headline "Complaints about airlines soar in new federal report."