Soaring airline customer complaints push global legislators to act

Official data from regulatory agencies shows complaints against airlines have reached, or neared record levels in countries like Canada and Germany over the last year since COVID-19 restrictions lifted and travel restarted.<br/>Rising numbers of disputes between travellers and airlines globally are driving fresh legislation and calls for tougher enforcement of existing rules to protect consumers. The sharpening of rules for payouts could add to pressure on air fares from energy, labour and other rising costs. Lufthansa's payouts alone rose to 331m in 2022 from E25m in 2021, the German airline group told Reuters in previously undisclosed figures. Legislation is under review in Canada, while the US government is writing new rules and the European Union is pushing for stronger enforcement of its existing regime. Pressure to act is building as summer travel is expected to break records in some regions this year following long airport lines and piles of backed up baggage last summer. Airlines fear a mish-mash of conflicting rules and want those responsible for services out of their control in the industry to help shoulder the compensation costs. European airline group Airlines for Europe (A4E) said compensation has become increasingly burdensome and existing rules leave too much down to interpretation. It is calling for reform of the legislation.<br/>