Airport complaints on the rise

One of the main gripes of many travellers is poor customer service at airports. Since security has been upped it can be a huge problem to get your luggage, family and handheld bagge through an intricate system of check ins, security and further security.

As we have seen from many shows such as "Airport", the customer service staff are often on the receiving end of a verbal bashing, whether that is through the passenger arriving late, forgetting their passport of losing their luggage.

Although they often get a hard time from angry punters, do they truly deserve it?

Recent events have shown that, when it comes to getting an airline to sit up, take note and even apologise for poor service, it's hard to beat penning a song about your experience and then posting it on the internet for millions of people across the world to see.

Sadly, most disgruntled passengers have neither the time nor the artistic talent to get their voice heard in such a manner, with most therefore opting instead to pen a strongly-worded letter or email to a carrier's complaints department and then cross their fingers for a response.

Despite the relative lack of success, new figures show that, far from simply giving up and being resigned to losing money or being treated badly, growing numbers of UK consumers are deciding to take action, however futile it may be, with the Air Transport Users Council (ATUC) revealing that it handled a total of 12,307 complaints over the past 2 months.

This compares to the 11,077 it dealt with over the preceding 12-month period, with the usual gripes continuing to be the most complained-about for passengers.

Somewhat predictably, cancelled flights still account for the biggest number of complaints, though airlines have insisted that, for the most part, these are brought about by unavoidable circumstances such as bad weather.

While the same could be said about delays, far less excusable is the fact that 1,200 people took the time to complain to the ATUC that their luggage was lost by an airline, and this after ongoing pledges that carriers were getting their act together in this department.

More surprisingly, this latest batch of statistics from the industry body show that, while they have been trumpeted as a means of reducing fares for the savvy traveller and helping to increase turnaround times and overall efficiency, the rise in 'add-on charges' being introduced online has led many passengers either confused or just downright annoyed.

"The technology that has allowed an increasing number of passengers to book, amend reservations and even check-in online may have brought great benefits to passengers but it has also brought its own problems," said AUC chairman Tina Tietjen.

"It has brought benefits to passengers in terms of potentially cheaper fares for those that don't need to use these services.

"But many passengers who contacted us were concerned that they were often not getting value for money for what they were paying for these services."

On the plus side, the publication of these figures comes as one low-cost airline, Flybe, has announced that its passengers will now be able to access Wi-Fi hotspots at several UK regional airports, including Birmingham, Exeter, Glasgow and Belfast - meaning disgruntled passengers could email off their complaints before they've even taken off.