FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, March 5, 1998
Contact: Bill Mosley
Tel.: (202) 366-5571
DOT 40-98
DOT ISSUES MONTHLY
AIR TRAVEL CONSUMER REPORT
The U.S. Department of Transportation today issued its monthly Air Travel Consumer Report, which contains information on airline on-time performance, mishandled baggage and consumer complaints for January 1998 and denied boarding for 1997.
This and future issues of the report can be found on DOT’s World Wide Web site at http://www.dot.gov/airconsumer/. It is available in both "html" and "pdf" formats.
According to the report, the 10 largest U.S. carriers posted an on-time arrival record of 75.1 percent in January, an improvement over both the 73.5 mark for December and the rate of 68.4 for January 1997.
The carriers posted a mishandled baggage rate of 6.04 complaints per 1,000 passengers in January, better than both December’s mark of 6.53 and January 1997's rate of 6.50.
The consumer report also shows that the carriers’ rate of denied boarding, or bumping, decreased to 1.06 per 10,000 passengers in 1997, compared to 1.20 during 1996. The rate for the last quarter of 1997 was 0.78, an improvement over the 1.63 that was reported for the same quarter in 1996.
Consumers filed 629 complaints about airline service with the department in January, 86 complaints or 12 percent fewer than in December 1997 but 14 complaints more than in January 1997.
Consumers may file their complaints with the Aviation Consumer Protection Division, U.S. Department of Transportation, C-75, 400 Seventh St., S.W., Room 4107, Washington, D.C. 20590.
The department reminded consumers who want on-time performance data for specific flights to call their airline ticket offices or their travel agents. This information is available on the computerized reservation systems used by these agents.
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