Industry | 2010.03.13
EasyJet and Ryanair top complaints league
Cancellations and missing bags dominate mailbox
Lib Dems say standards are falling with prices
The aviation watchdog has revealed that easyJet and Ryanair were the subject of the most complaints from British airline passengers last year.
Cancellations, missing bags and denied boarding were among the gripes that saw Europe\'s largest budget airlines dominate the mailbox at the Air Transport Users\' Council (AUC).
EasyJet had the most complaints of any major airline, with 719; Ryanair, which revels in its penny-pinching notoriety, was not far behind with 673.
The Liberal Democrats, who secured the figures in a freedom of information request, said the numbers proved that service standards were a casualty of lower fares.
Ryanair complaints have risen by 70% since 2005 and easyJet\'s by a third over the same period.
"This huge across-the-board rise in complaints shows that at some airlines customer service is going out of the window," said Norman Baker, the Lib Dem transport spokesman. "They think they have a captive market and can treat their passengers badly and get away with it."
Cancellations and flight delays accounted for more than four out of 10 complaints to Ryanair and easyJet last year. The usual budget airline whinges – baggage limits and extra charges – accounted for only about 6% of the two airlines\' complaints.
One industry analyst said the apparent surge in passenger anger at the budget airlines was comparatively small considering their growth over the past 10 years.
In 2000 Ryanair and easyJet combined carried 13 million customers, compared with more than 100 million now. "It is a consequence of their size and scale in the market," said John Strickland, an aviation consultant. "Wherever they introduce capacity they fill it. They could not do that and sustain their passenger numbers if they were delivering a service that was unsatisfactory. If anything, it shows that, proportionately, their customers are pretty happy."
The two airlines\' no-frills approach was derided by rivals more than a decade ago but it has transformed short-haul air travel, forcing conventional carriers to cut fares and in some cases drop their business-class cabins or abandon free food.
EasyJet, which carried more than 29 million passengers in and out of the UK last year, said the figures showed that it received one complaint per 40,000 passengers. "We take every complaint seriously, but passengers are voting with their feet," said an easyJet spokesman.
Ryanair, now the largest short-haul airline in Europe with more than 60 million passengers per year, said the AUC statistics showed that Ryanair received fewer complaints per passenger than easyJet and British Airways. BA came third in the AUC list with 528 complaints.
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/mar/12/ryanair-easyjet-complaints
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