Budget airline EasyJet have been revealed to be the most complained about carrier according to a UK based flight compensation company.
New data release by EUclaim has revealed that EasyJet have been the most complained about UK airline the first half of this year. Many airlines however have been vocal in disputing the data, however the cases through EUclaim regarding EasyJet have increased every year for the past three.
The airline can boast another accolade after they were also revealed to have topped EUclaim’s ‘Carriers of Shame’ list for the first six months of the year. Between January and June of this year there had been a whopping 5,641 claims against EasyJet.
Despite EasyJet topping the claims, fellow airline Ryanair saw the number of people seeking compensation against them double in the last year.
1,879 Ryanair passengers received advisory services for EUclaim during the first half of last year, however that number increased by 154% this year, with 4,781 passengers making airclaims for delayed or cancelled flights.
The ‘Carriers of Shame’ list surprisingly wasn’t topped solely by budget airlines, with British Airways notably coming fourth on this year’s list. The complaints against the carrier has increased annually from the 2014.
Despite their higher prices, leisure airlines continue to provide better service with complaints against them continuing to decrease every year from 2013.
Monarch in particular have fallen out of the ‘Carrier of Shame’ list this year due to the airline continuing to improve their services. In 2014, there were 2,599 claims against the Monarch but in the same period for 2015, the number of claims had fallen by 23%.
In 2016, EUclaim have estimated that carriers could owe as much as €699,667,500 in compensation fees due cancellations and delays that exceed three hours.
The UK manager of EUclaim, Adeline Noorderhaven, speaking on the companies’ findings said, “’The number of complaints in 2016 has been sky-high.
‘It is likely that a prolonged period of bad weather toward the end of March, as well as a wash-out June played a part, but by far and away the biggest contributing factor has been the consistent strike action in France and Italy, which has led to flight misery for passengers as cancellations and delays shot through the roof.
‘While strike action and bad weather can be considered extraordinary circumstances, airlines need to take more responsibility to ensure that customers are looked after and properly compensated for their loss.
‘We are seeing that with the tight crew planning the airlines are not able to deal with these incidents and are allowing their whole rotation to be affected, sometimes even days after the incident.’
