New report: Complaints against U.S. airlines soar to another record in 2024

May 15, 2025

Media Contacts

Deirdre Cummings

Consumer Program Director, MASSPIRG Education Fund
617-747-4319
[email protected]

BOSTON – Complaints lodged against U.S. airlines hit another record in 2024, rising by nearly 9%, even though passenger volume rose by only 4% compared with 2023. That’s according to The Plane Truth 2025, U.S PIRG Education Fund’s newest analysis of U.S. Department of Transportation data..

Last year marked the fourth year in the last five that complaints against U.S. carriers increased to new highs. Air travelers filed nearly 67,000 complaints with the Transportation Department about problems including canceled flights, lost baggage and stalled refunds.

“It’s clear that travelers have found their voice and understand that speaking out matters,” said Teresa Murray, consumer watchdog director for U.S. PIRG Education Fund and author of Plane Truth 2025. “The avalanche of tens of thousands complaints over the years helped cement dozens of new passenger protections passed by Congress in May 2024. But beleaguered travelers aren’t satisfied. They still expect airlines to do better.”

Some passenger complaints likely stemmed from flight cancellations and delays, which increased in 2024 after improving in 2023. In 2024, airlines delayed or cancelled nearly 1.7 million flights — about 22%. What happens during the rest of 2025 is a question mark now that air traffic controller shortages are creating chaos at Newark Liberty International Airport (one of the nation’s busiest) and various other airports at different times.

The Plane Truth 2025 also found:

For the third year in a row, Frontier had the most complaints per 100,000 passengers among the 10 largest airlines, considerably worse than the carrier with the second-highest ratio, Spirit. On the other end, Southwest and Alaska had the fewest complaints.
Airlines in 2024 experienced 437 domestic tarmac delays of three hours or more. That’s the most in one year since the 2010 Tarmac Delay Rule, and is up from last year’s 289 delays.
The number of travelers involuntarily bumped dropped slightly. Interestingly, more than 10 times the number involuntarily bumped volunteered to give up their seats on overbooked flights. Our report explains how voluntary bumping works and what travelers can expect as compensation.
Among the top 10 airlines and their partner airlines, about 2.7 million checked bags, wheelchairs or scooters were mishandled, generally meaning they were lost or damaged.

The report also looks at what travelers can expect in 2025 as we enter the busy summer travel season. Global passenger volume had been expected to increase by 6.7% this year compared with 2024, and exceed the 5 billion mark worldwide for the first time, according to the International Air Transport Association. Passengers on U.S. airlines have increased year over year since 2009, except in COVID-ravaged 2020, hitting new records the last two years.

But with economic uncertainty and a decline in international tourists, some of the largest airlines, including Delta, Southwest and United, say they plan to cut the number of flights in the months ahead because demand could falter. If they do reduce flights and demand remains strong, however, look for extra-crowded cabins and airports, more missed connections and another record year for complaints.

“It’s more important than ever that travelers plan ahead, take steps to protect themselves and know their rights if something goes wrong,” said Deirdre Cummings, Consumer Program Director, MASSPIRG. “As we’ve seen, airlines don’t always do the right thing automatically. We all need to continue to push the airlines, regulators and lawmakers to do more to protect us.”

Links to our most popular airline guides:

Airline travel tips you shouldn’t fly without

New airline passenger protections explained, with effective dates

Checking bags on a flight: How much does my airline charge?

Flyers’ Bill of Rights