US: Airline complaints fall as bag-handling, cancellations improve

Airlines improved the luggage handling and canceled fewer flights in April, and passengers filed fewer complaints, the US DoT announced Monday. The dozen airlines that report about their baggage handling to the department had 2.39 reports of mishandled bags for every 1,000 passengers in April, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. That rate is down from 2.59 in March and 2.54 the same month a year earlier, according to the bureau. Consumers filed 1,169 complaints with the department about airline service, according to the bureau’s monthly Air Travel Consumer Report. That figure is down nearly 39% from the 1,908 filed the same month a year earlier. The lists for flight disruptions were topped by the usual suspects in April. Overall, the 17 airlines that report their flight operations to the department had flights arriving within 15 minutes of their schedules an average 81.3% of the time in April, according to the report. That compared to 80.9% in March and 78.5 for the same month a year earlier. The most punctual carriers were Hawaiian Airlines, Delta and Mesa Airlines. The carriers with the lowest rates of on-time arrivals were JetBlue, Frontier and Southwest.<br/>