\n
![](\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/img-assets\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/AP24185697105811-e1720216455714.jpg?w=2048\")
<\/p>\n [ad_1]
\n<\/p>\n
Air travel<\/a>\u00a0got more miserable last year, if the number of consumer complaints filed with the U.S. government is any measure.<\/p>\n The\u00a0Transportation Department<\/a>\u00a0said Friday that it received nearly 97,000 complaints in 2023, up from about 86,000 the year before. The department said there were so many complaints that it took until July to sort through the filings and compile the figures.<\/p>\n That\u2019s the highest number of\u00a0consumer complaints about airlines<\/a>\u00a0since 2020, when airlines were slow to give customers refunds after the coronavirus pandemic shut down air travel.<\/p>\n The increase in complaints came even as\u00a0airlines canceled<\/a>\u00a0far fewer U.S. flights \u2014 116,700, or 1.2% of the total, last year, compared with about 210,500, or 2.3%,\u00a0in 2022<\/a>, according to FlightAware data. However, delays remained stubbornly high last year, at around 21% of all flights.<\/p>\n So far this year, cancellations remain relatively low \u2014 about 1.3% of all flights \u2014 but delays are still running around 21%.<\/p>\n More than two-thirds of all complaints last year dealt with\u00a0U.S. airlines<\/a>, but a quarter covered foreign airlines. Most of the rest were about travel agents and tour operators.<\/p>\n Complaints about treating\u00a0passengers with disabilities<\/a>\u00a0rose by more than one-fourth compared with 2022. Complaints of discrimination, while small in number, also rose sharply. Most were\u00a0about race<\/a>\u00a0or national origin.<\/p>\n Airlines receive many more complaints from travelers who don\u2019t know how or don\u2019t bother to complain to the government, but the carriers don\u2019t release those numbers.<\/p>\n The Transportation Department is modernizing its complaint-taking system, which the agency says will help it do a better job overseeing the airline industry. However, the department now releases complaint numbers many months late. It did not issue figures for the second half of 2023 until Friday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\nSubscribe to the Fortune Next to Lead newsletter to get weekly strategies on how to make it to the corner office. Sign up for free<\/a>.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n