Whether you've lost a suitcase or been bumped off an overbooked flight, we've all had our fair share of travel frustrations. Now, thanks to a new report by the US Department of Transportation, we know which of America's top airlines are the worst performing. Examining the number of delayed flights, mishandled baggage reports, customer complaints and overbooked flights, the report reveals the worst of America's airlines.

The first part of the study looked at the number of regularly scheduled flights which were late 70% or more of the time in August 2017. With a surprising number of airlines keeping it punctual, we've chosen the worst five. Kicking off the list is Alaska Airlines, with 0.7% of flights arriving late 70% or more of the time.

Next up is SkyWest Airlines. With 1,720 regularly scheduled flights in August, 1.8% of planes arrived late at least 70% of the time.

Even though they had far fewer flights than Skywest, with 863 flights, JetBlue had a higher percentage of flights arriving late 70% or more of the time, with 2.3% of offending planes experiencing delays.

Virgin America are high on the list, with 3.3% of 206 regularly scheduled flights making unfashionably late appearances.

In the top spot, the worst offending airline for August was Southwest Airlines. A whopping 6.9% of 144 flights arrived late 70% or more of the time, more than double the number of delayed flights than Virgin America.

The study also looked at mishandled baggage reports in August 2017, including lost, damaged, delayed or pilfered baggage. At number 12 is Delta Airlines with nearly 17,000 baggage reports among its 11.5 million passengers.

Measuring the number of mishandled baggage reports per thousand passengers, next up is Spirit Airlines, 1.65 complaints per thousand. This was a marked improvement from August 2016, when they dealt with 2.37 reports per thousand passengers.

With 5,348 baggage reports and almost three million passengers, JetBlue Airways comes in at number 10.

In ninth place, Alaska Airlines dealt with almost two reports per thousand passengers.

It's good news for Frontier Airlines, who halved its number of mishandled baggage reports in 2017, seeing just over two reports per thousand passengers this year.

On the flipside, Virgin America saw an increase in reports: this August they dealt with a total of 2.19 reports per thousand passengers. That's a total of 1,671 complaints.

With almost a million passengers travelling on its planes, Hawaiian had just 2,110 total baggage reports, putting it in sixth place in the table.

In fifth place was United Airlines, with a total of 19,276 baggage complaints among its 7.7 million passengers.

With a whopping 10.8 million passengers travelling on its planes in August 2017, there was an equally staggering 30,440 baggage reports on American Airlines. This was a marked improvement on August 2016, when out of 10.5 million passengers, there were 43,632 baggage reports.

In third place, Skywest Airlines saw three reports of mishandled baggage per thousand passengers, totalling 10,022 baggage reports.

Nearing the top of the list, Southwest Airlines served a huge 13.5 million passengers in August and saw 42,818 baggage reports.

The worst culprit of all is ExpressJet Airlines, with an enormous 3.72 reports per thousand passengers: that’s 4,515 baggage reports from a total of 1.2 million passengers on its flights. This is, however, an improvement from the previous year, when they experienced 5.61 reports per thousand passengers.

Overbooked flights have made headlines this year, namely the incident with United Airlines, and this section of the report looks which airlines are the worst offenders. Looking at the figures between January and June 2017, it examines how many passengers were bumped off flights, voluntarily or not, this year. The best of the worst is Delta Airlines, which bumped off over 72,000 passengers during the six month period. That's an average of 0.1 passengers bumped off per 10,000.

Next up is Hawaiian Airlines, which while it only bumped off 153 passengers voluntarily and 77 involuntarily, that makes an average of 0.14 passengers denied boarding per 10,000.

In 10th place is Alaska Airlines, booting off over 5,000 passengers from January to June this year, up from just over 4,000 in the same period in 2016. The average works out to be 0.4 passengers per 10,000.

On Virgin America flights, 1,713 people were denied boarding among the nearly four million passengers flying during this time period.

With almost 45 million passengers flying in the first six months of 2017, United Airlines denied boarding to nearly 29,000 passengers. Over 26,000 of those voluntarily gave up their seats.

Over 7.7 million passengers chose Frontier Airlines during this period and the airline denied boarding to 1,326 of those.

Over 15.5 million passengers chose to fly with SkyWest Airlines during the first six months of the year, but 20,443 of those were bumped off due to oversold flights.

A huge number of passengers flew with American Airlines from January to June, with 64.5 million people choosing the airline. However, 27,403 people were also denied boarding.

A whopping 76.5 million passengers chose to fly with Southwest Airlines in the first half of 2017, but they bumped off 33,360 in total. They also had the highest number of passengers being involuntary bumped off at 5,179.

JetBlue Airways was one of the worst culprits, booting off a total of 2,587 passengers. They were the only airline to bump more involuntary passengers than voluntary.

Over 13,000 people were denied boarding on ExpressJet planes in the first half of this year. That puts them in second place as one of the worst airlines for overbooking.


The worst culprit of all was Spirit Airlines, taking the unenviable top spot with 11,113,429 passengers but more than one denied boarding per 10,000 passengers. The airline bumped off 6,321 people voluntarily, and 1,182 involuntarily.

The next part of the US Department for Transportation focused on consumer complaints, taking into account any grievances addressed in writing, on the phone, via email or in person during August 2017. The least-complained about airline is Virgin America, with just six complaints: two for flight problems, one for baggage, one for customer service, and two relating to disability.

Joint with Virgin America at the better end of the list, Trans States Airlines also experienced six complaints: five for flight problems and one for an unspecified reason.

Next on the list is Hawaiian Airlines, with seven complaints, spread across a variety of topics, from flight problems to fares.

With eight complaints, Piedmont Airlines was next on the list, with flight problems making up over half of grievances.

Also dealing with eight complaints, Commutair’s customers were mainly speaking out against flight problems too.

With 10 complaints, Mesa Airlines was up next. Its customers’ main moans were about flight problems, although baggage and customer service were also issues.

Tying with Mesa Airlines with 10 complaints, passengers were most angry about baggage issues, although ticket problems, fares and customer service also got their backs up.

Next up, with 11 complaints, ExpressJet Airlines displeased its customers due to problems on flights, although customer service was also an issue.

PSA Airlines is next in line with 12 complaints from consumers, mainly about flight problems but also about customer service and discrimination.

With 13 complaints, spread across flight problems, tickets, refunds, baggage, customer service and issues relating to disability, Alaska Airlines is next on the list.

Endeavor Air had to deal with 14 complaints, most of which were, again, to do with flight problems.

From here, the complaints really start to mount up: flight problems were an issue for Republic Airlines, with 21 out of 22 complaints on the subject.

With 24 complaints, largely about flight problems, Envoy Air also had to deal with its fair share of unhappy customers in August.

Flight problems, overselling, ticket issues, refunds, baggage, customer service, disability issues and more led to a headache in August for Frontier Airlines. They had to field a total of 26 complaints from customers.

Dynamic Airways’ customers were not impressed with its flights this summer, with 25 of 28 complaints relating to flight problems.

With a huge 35 complaints, the root of Skywest Airlines’ issues were flight problems, where 28 of the grievances originated from.

47 complaints were sent Allegiant Air’s way, with 25 passengers venting about flight problems, and others complaining about about ticketing, fares, refunds, baggage, customer service and disability.

The number of complaints skyrocketed from here: JetBlue dealt with 60 in August. Of these, 37 were about flight problems, with an additional six about baggage, and four each for ticket issues and customer service.

Southwest Airlines’ customers were dissatisfied to say the least, with 105 complaints filed in August. Of these, 49 were about flight problems, 10 were about ticket issues, nine revolved around baggage problems, and 12 were related to disability issues.

Delta Airlines had to deal with a whopping 107 complaints in August this year. There were 32 about flight problems, seven regarding overselling, 12 about ticket issues, nine in relation to fares, four about refunds, 10 for baggage, 16 for customer service and 15 relating to disability.

In third place, Spirit Airlines handled 110 complaints. The vast majority were about flight problems, but overselling, ticket sales, fares, refunds, baggage and customer service were also on passengers' minds.

With a whopping 226 complaints in just a month, United Airlines’ passengers got vocal about a whole load of issues, with 79 speaking up about flight problems, 21 about ticket issues, 25 about fares, 36 about baggage and 27 about customer service. One complaint was also issued about the airline’s advertising.

Top of the list no airline wants to win, American Airlines had to handle an huge 297 complaints from its customers. A huge 131 of these grievances were to do with flight problems, while 27 were about ticket issues, 29 were about refunds, 30 were about baggage, 33 were about customer service and 19 were to do with disability.