Flight claims company reveal easyJet is the most complained about airline
Budget airline headed the EUclaims complaints list as firm faced 5,641 compensation claims in the first half of the year
EASYJET is the most complained about airline, figures reveal.
Flight compensation firm EUClaim revealed internal figures relating to claims made in the first six months of this year.
EasyJet headed the "carriers of shame" list, with 5,641 claims processed against it.
It said the number of cases against the budget airline giant has increased every year since 2013.
Second in the list is Ryanair, with the number of people seeking compensation against the carrier more than doubling year-on-year to 4,781 for the six months to June 30.
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EUclaim said Monarch, meanwhile, has been steadily improving its services, reducing the 2,599 claims made against it in 2014 to 2,001 in the same period in 2015 and this year falling out of the 2016 top ‘carriers of shame’ list completely.
EUclaim UK manager Adeline Noorderhaven admitted the number of complaints this year has been boosted by outside factors, such as bad weather in March and June and air traffic control strikes in France and Italy.
But she said while these may be considered extraordinary circumstances, airlines still need to take more responsibility to ensure customers are looked after and properly compensated for their loss.
She said: “What we have seen this year is that not only is there an increase in the number of extraordinary incidents, but because of the tight crew duty scheduling, airlines cannot react swiftly enough to these issues and allow the problems to flow into their entire rotation and even into other days.
“For example, if there is a strike in France we will see that not only the flights to and from France are delayed or cancelled but also flights to other European countries that do not even touch French air space.
The delays for these flights are not considered extraordinary.”
EUClaim said low-cost carriers were operating at such high load factors they failed to accommodate affected passengers when problems strike.
Ms Noorderhaven said: “We’ve seen people whose flight was cancelled due to a strike who then have to wait four days for a replacement flight.
“Airlines are given prior notice of events such as air traffic control strikes and have a responsibility to take reasonably measures to minimise the disruption.”
An easyJet spokeswoman said: “Over the last few months the airline industry has seen unprecedented levels of disruption as a result of external factors like French air traffic control strikes and congestion in the London area and in Europe.
"This has led to a larger than expected volume of claims for us to process. We will always pay compensation when it is due.
“easyJet carries more UK passengers than any other airline listed by EU Claims.
"We also recommend that customers should apply to easyJet to receive all of their compensation without paying any fees to third parties.
“easyJet’s regulator, the CAA, has published two reports on the handling of EU 261 claims by the fifteen largest airlines flying to and from the UK.
"In these reports, CAA confirmed easyJet was the only airline that was fully complying on paying compensation for technical faults and received a ‘very good’ rating for how we communicate with passengers during disruption.”
