Air passenger bumping drops after dragging case
Lowest figures in U.S. since 1995, agency reports
U. S. airlines reported the lowest level of involuntary passenger bumping since 1995 in the months following a high-profile case in which a man was injured while being dragged off a plane in Chicago.
Ticketed passengers who were refused a seat on flights fell to 44 per million passengers from April through June, the Department of Transportation said in an emailed statement Tuesday. That was the lowest quarterly rate since the agency began collecting the data.
The rate was 29 per cent lower than the same period a year earlier, when 62 customers per million were bumped, according to department.
Airline executives were hauled before Congress and carriers raced to change their policies after a man was injured on April 9 while being hauled from a United Airlines plane in Chicago. The incident was captured on video and widely broadcast on television and on social media.
David Dao, a doctor from Kentucky, suffered a concussion, a broken nose and damaged teeth, said Thomas Demetrio, a lawyer he hired in the days after the incident. Dao had been flying back to Louisville and didn’t want to miss his flight because he had patients to see, Demetrio said.
After refusing to leave his seat — which the airline needed so it could transport crew members — airport security workers removed him by force.
The rate of involuntary denial of boarding during the first six months of the year, 52 per million passengers, was also the lowest recorded for a six- month period since 1995, according to the department.
The release didn’t provide information on why the rate had dropped. Since April, airlines have increased the compensation they pay customers who are denied a seat and made other policy changes. American Airlines Group Inc., for example, created a desk that monitors every flight that is oversold and gets involved earlier to find volunteers willing to give up their seats.
Of the 12 airlines required to report data to the department, a total of 7,764 people were involuntarily denied seats in the April- June period, according to the records. That compares with 10,683 a year earlier.
The numbers of involuntary bumpings don’t include the people who voluntarily agree to give up their seats on overbooked flights, often in exchange for travel vouchers. There were 94,151 such cases during the second quarter, a rate of 531 per million, according to the department.
While most carriers reported a lower rate in the second quarter compared to the first three months of the year, the carrier in the spotlight over the issue, United Continental Holdings Inc., didn’t change, according to government data. It reported about 44 per million involuntary denied boardings in both periods.
The number of passengers bumped involuntarily at United fell 88 per cent in June when compared with the same month a year ago after a 79 per cent drop in May, the company said in a news release last month. In the weeks after the Dao scandal, the company adopted 10 changes meant to head off customer disputes and prevent anyone from being dragged off another plane.
The government data didn’t include monthly statistics, so couldn’t be compared against United’s statement.
The policy changes at United included reducing the overbooking of flights and increasing the potential payouts to people who vol- untarily give up their seats on an oversold flight to as much as US$ 10,000. Previously, payouts to passengers on overbooked flights were capped at US$ 1,350. Delta Air Lines Inc. also increased i ts maximum payout for people who volunteer to give up their seats to US$9,950.
Spokesmen for United and Delta were not immediately available. American referred to its earlier statements on policy changes.
In May, Southwest Airl i nes Co. s t opped overbooking flights, l i miting denied boardings to operations- related problems. “Discontinuing the act of overbooking is consistent with our customer- friendly policies, and we are pleased that the denied boarding numbers are at an all- time low,” said Brandy King, a spokeswoman for the airline.
The rate between airlines varied significantly. JetBlue Airways Corp. reported involuntarily denying seats to only 42 people during the second quarter this year, a rate of about 4 per million passengers.
By comparison, low- cost carrier Spirit Airlines Inc. led the pack with 731 involuntary bumpings, a rate of more than 125 per million.
Delta was the lowest of the large U. S. carriers, according to the department. It denied seats to 296 people during the second quarter for a rate of 9 per million. Southwest had the most among major carriers with 2,642 bumpings, or 64 per million flyers.
The data is collected for the 12 carriers that have at least 1 per cent of U. S. domestic passenger- service revenues.