Forced bumping from flights almost disappears on U.S. airlines

Major U.S. airlines are bumping far fewer passengers from overbooked flights after a high-profile incident in April prompted the industry to reassess its practices, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) reported on Thursday.

The government reported the rate of involuntary bumping passengers among the 12 largest U.S. carriers fell to 0.15 per 10,000 passengers in the three months ended Sept. 30 — the lowest quarterly rate dating back to 1995 — and down sharply from a rate of 0.69 in the same period last year.

The involuntary bumping figure does not take into account passengers who agree to give up their seats in exchange for compensation.

The DOT said the total number of passengers giving up their seats fell nearly 35 per cent to 74,358 in the three months ended Sept. 30, down from 114,119 in the same period last year, even as the overall number of passengers rose.

Eight of the 12 major airlines — including the four largest — also reported cutting the number of people who voluntarily gave up their seats.

United Continental Holdings executives apologized in April after Dr. David Dao, 69, was dragged down the aisle of a plane in Chicago in an ugly incident that sparked outrage and prompted Congress to hold hearings to consider new passenger protections.

After that incident, United increased its maximum incentive to US$10,000 for volunteers on overbooked flights and vowed to decrease instances of involuntary denied boarding to “as close to zero as possible.”

Prior to the United incident, just one of the major U.S. carriers — JetBlue — had a policy explicitly stating it would not overbook flights.

JetBlue overbooking fell to just 18 passengers in the three-month period from 1,313 a year ago.