Canadian airlines had a rough summer, but some airlines were much better than others.
New data published today by the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) shows the number of air travel complaints submitted to the CTA per 100 flights operated by Canadian and foreign airlines. It’s an interesting read that could surprise some travellers.
The tables include:
• air travel complaint data submitted during 3-month time periods
• airlines that operated a minimum of 100 flights to/from/within Canada during each time period
• airlines with an average of 1 or more complaints per 100 flights
The table published today shows Air Transat had 2.2 complaints per 100 flights between April and the end of September, while Flair Airlines had 13.7 complaints for every 100 flights. Air Canada was at 3.6 per 100 flights, while WestJet was at 4.9, Sunwing at 8.6, and Swoop had 12.6 complaints per 100 flights.
Porter Airlines wasn’t listed in the chart.
The chart includes stats for both April 1 to June 30, and then July 1 to September 30. Not surprisingly given the busy summer at Canadian airports, complaints tended to be much higher in summer than they were in the spring. For Flair Airlines, there were 9.3 complaints per 100 flights in ther first period, but 18.0 in the second period.
The CTA chart also looked at complaints per 100 flights by foreign airlines. Qatar Airways had a whopping 24.1 complaints per 100 flights for the year, while Turkish Airlines had 14.7 and Air India had 13.7. Caribbean Airlines and ALIA, the Royal Jordanian Airline, each had just one complaint per 100 flights.
Other notable airline complaint figures include American Airlines (1.1), Air New Zealand (2.4), KLM (3.5), British Airways (4.6), Cathay Pacific (5.1) Air France (5.2), Qantas (5.5), and Lufthansa (8.6).
The complaints data is compiled by the CTA and will be updated on a quarterly basis, officials said.
Background
• The complaint data is based on the information submitted by passengers and may not have been reviewed by the CTA at the time of publishing
• The data is based on the number of flights by airline and does not reflect the number of passengers per flight or the size of the aircraft
• The data used for this dashboard is based on all of the air travel complaints submitted to the CTA; the numbers do not imply whether or not an airline actually met its regulatory requirements
• Most complaints (97%) are resolved informally through facilitation or mediation; other complaints move to a formal adjudication process
• Airlines identified in the complaint may change based on the information supplied by the passenger and the airline during the complaint review process
• Complaints related to accessibility are not included in these tables
• The number of flights operated per airline during the time period is provided by a third party (Cirium)
