Tigerair has once again been awarded the dubious honour of being Australia’s most complained about airline.
The industry-funded Airline Customer Advocate’s 2016 annual report shows Tigerair (which is actually owned by Singapore Airlines) was the most complained about airline of Australia’s four largest carriers that includes Jetstar, Qantas, Virgin and Tigerair.
However, it wasn’t a complete disaster for Tiger. According to the report, it received 31.9 complaints for every million passengers who flew with it. However, that was markedly down from 37.7 complaints in 2015.
Complaints were based on refunds, delays, cancellations, baggage services, fees and charges, and airport customer services.
The second most complained about Aussie airline was Virgin, which leap-frogged Jetstar for the silver medal. Virgin received 13.5 complaints per million passengers in 2016, however that was up from 10.5 the previous year.
The Qantas-owned Jetstar came third for most complaints, however, had cut its rate markedly from 2015 when it was averaging 20 complaints per million.
Qantas was again the least complained about airline, falling from 8.4 to 7.2 per complaints per million passengers across the top five issues from 2015-16.
Complaints around refunds were the most common passenger issue, making up 31 per cent of complaints, followed by delays or cancellations (25 per cent), baggage services (11 per cent), fees or charges (9 per cent), and airport customer service (six per cent).
