air travel consumer report 2015

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FAQs: New Air Travel Consumer Report

Q. What is new about the Air Travel Consumer Report (ATCR)?

A. The ATCR, for the first time since its inception more than 30 years ago, contains data on domestic flights that are marketed by the mainline carriers, but operated by the mainline carriers’ regional codeshare affiliates.

Q. What are mainline carriers?

A. Mainline carriers, in addition to operating their own flights, contract with other airlines, known as code-share partners, who operate flights under the mainline carriers’ brand. There are currently five such mainline carriers:

• Alaska Airlines (marketing brand – Alaska Horizon)
• American Airlines (marketing brand – American Eagle)
• Delta Air Lines (marketing brand – Delta Connection)
• Hawaiian Airlines (marketing brand –Ohana by Hawaiian)
• United Airlines (marketing brand – United Express)

Q. What airlines now report on-time and oversales data to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS)?

A. On-time and oversales data continues to be reported by carriers with at least one-half of one percent of the total scheduled-service domestic passenger revenue for domestic flights they operate. There are currently 17 reporting carriers that report on-time and oversales data:  Alaska, Allegiant, American, Delta, Endeavor, Envoy, ExpressJet, Frontier, Hawaiian, JetBlue, Mesa, PSA, Republic, SkyWest, Southwest, Spirit, and United.

In addition, the reporting carriers that market flights operated by their regional code-share partners under their brand (currently Alaska, American, Delta, Hawaiian and United) are required to report on-time and oversales numbers for their regional code-share partners. The ATCR will show these numbers as the mainline carrier’s network.

Q. Will U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) continue to provide the numbers for operating carriers even if they operate under the brand of mainline carriers?

A. The ATCR and the BTS website will show numbers for flights operated by the reporting carriers as well as flights that the reporting carrier market that are operated by their regional code-share partners.

Q. Why did USDOT require the change in reporting?

A. Branded codeshare partners account for more than one-fourth of the passengers carried and more than half of the domestic flights. With this new ATCR, the flying public will see a more complete picture of the performance of scheduled passenger service, which will make the report even more useful to consumers.  See the 2016 final rule: Docket No. DOT-OST-2014-0056

Q. Has USDOT required the marketing carriers to report mishandled baggage report numbers for their code-share affiliates?

A. The mishandled baggage data submitted by U.S. airlines must include data not only for flights that they operate but also for flights sold under their brand that are operated by other carriers beginning on  Jan. 1, 2019 . 

Also, beginning on Jan. 1, 2019, the pool of U.S. airlines that must report mishandled baggage to the Department will expand from U.S. carriers that account for 1 percent of total annual scheduled domestic passenger revenue to 0.5 percent. The reporting carriers will also be required to change the way they report mishandled bags to the Department.  Instead of reporting mishandled baggage reports compared to passenger enplanements, airlines will be reporting number of mishandled bags compared to the number of checked bags.  In addition, airlines will also be required to report separately for the first time the number of mishandled wheelchairs and scooters.

Q. Is there more information available on the ATCR changes?

A. See the USDOT webinar: USDOT Air Travel Consumer Report Overview  

Air New Zealand and Jetstar flight sales announced for 2024 and 2025

Sarah Pollok

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Air New Zealand and Jetstar both released sales this week.

• Air New Zealand has released 750,000 domestic one-way fares from $59
• Jetstar has put 15,000 international flights from New Zealand on sale
• Air NZ CEO Greg Foran said the airline’s cost base had increased more than 30% since 2020

Air New Zealand and Jetstar both announced sales this week but a consumer watchdog says flights are almost 300% higher than four years ago.

It’s a battle of the bargains this week as Air New Zealand and Jetstar launched sales within a day of one another, promoting domestic flights from $59 and one-way trans-Tasman flights from $135.

Yesterday, Air New Zealand released 750,000 domestic one-way fares priced from $59 to $99.

The tickets cover a range of cities in Aotearoa and prices apply in both directions, so expensive return flights won’t catch travellers out.

On sale until midnight July 24, the tickets must be used during five travel periods between September 2024 and February 2025.

The three most expensive routes, starting at $99 each way, are Auckland to Queenstown , Dunedin, and Invercargill.

Today, Jetstar launched a sale 24 hours later, releasing 15,000 discounted one-way fares.

The sale runs until midnight on Monday, July 22. Like Air New Zealand, Jetstar travellers must travel during specific periods, which vary by route but run from August 2024 to mid-June 2025.

The sale includes several routes between major New Zealand cities and Australia or Pacific destinations such as Auckland to Sydney from $135, Wellington to Gold Coast from $159 or Auckland to Rarotonga from $169.

Return flights are not included in the sale. For example, travellers can purchase a September flight from Auckland to Gold Coast for $169 and a return flight one week later for $262.

Discounted fares will likely be appreciated by travellers, who are paying three times as much for flights compared to 2019 and 2021, according to Consumer NZ.

The consumer watchdog recently compared fares from 11 Air New Zealand flights from 2019 to 2021 with equivalent flights in 2023 and 2024. One flight had dropped in price but the rest were more expensive, with prices up 34% to 297%.

It wasn’t great news for those who must fly domestically and could be reassuring for those who had suspected prices were higher than before.

“It’s no surprise that New Zealand consumers are questioning how and why flight prices have increased so much over the past few years”.

The airline addressed the increased domestic prices in May during the country’s largest international tourism business event, Trenz.

Air New Zealand chief executive Greg Foran said the airline was in “a challenging environment” regarding costs and did not expect airfares to drop on their own .

The consumer analysis explored a “range of scenarios” and original booking details were mimicked as closely as possible regarding lead-in time, flight time, days abroad and baggage.

In 2021, a return flight to Hamilton for two adults and no luggage, booked two days beforehand, cost $281.20. Fast forward three years and the same flight was $1118.00.

An international flight from Sydney to Palmerston North booked two days before flying for a family of four cost $1372 in March 2020. Today, the price is more than double, at $3451.

Flights made a month in advance were still twice (or in one case, three times) more expensive now compared to 2019 and 2020.

When asked about the increase, Air New Zealand General Manager Domestic Scott Carr said the comparisons were “extremely disappointing” and “misleading”.

“The small sample of fares they have used reflects two very different operating environments. In 2020 and 2021 there was a global pandemic, the borders were closed, and at times there was restricted domestic travel,” he said.

Carr said domestic fares increased by 20% from 2020 to 2024 and during that time the airline has faced rising costs from suppliers of over 40%. In the last year, domestic airfares decreased by 4% according to Statistics NZ, Carr added.

Consumer NZ’s Damen said people often contacted them feeling frustrated by the cost of flights as well as cancellations.

Foran recently told Kerre Woodham on Newstalk ZB that although the airline’s cancellation rates were falling, there was work to do regarding delays .

The cancellation rate was at 3.2% of all flights and punctuality was improving, he said.

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Air Travel Consumer Reports for 2023

The Air Travel Consumer Report is a monthly product of the Department of Transportation's Office of Aviation Consumer Protection.  The report is designed to assist consumers with information on the quality of services provided by the airlines. This page was last updated on January 5, 2024, and the most recent data is from October 2023.

Air Travel Consumer Reports for 2023:

• December 2023 report
• November 2023 report
• October 2023 report 
• September 2023 report
• August 2023 report
• July 2023 report
• June 2023 report  
• May 2023 report
• April 2023 report
• March 2023 report
• February 2023 report
• January 2023 report 

How the Report is Organized

The report is divided into the following sections (Flight Delays, Mishandled Baggage, Wheelchairs and Scooters; Oversales, Consumer Complaints, Airline Reports of the Loss, Injury, or Death of Animals During Air Transportation and Customer Service Reports to the Transportation Security Administration). The sections that deal with flight delays, mishandled baggage, wheelchairs and scooters; and oversales are based on data collected by the Department's Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS). The section that deals with consumer complaints is based on data compiled by the Office of Aviation Consumer Protection (OACP). The section that deals with animal incidents during air transport is based on reports required to be submitted by airlines to the OACP. The section that deals with customer service reports to the Department of Homeland Security’s Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is based on data provided by TSA. Each section of the report is preceded by a brief explanation of how to read and understand the information provided.

The report is usually issued during the second week of each month. Oversales are reported quarterly rather than monthly, and oversales figures may be slightly older than the other data in certain months. The report, which contains tables of information, is best printed in "landscape" orientation.

Additional air travel data can be found on the BTS website .