More than €500,000 refunded to airline customers following complaints to regulator
Valid complaints relating to cancellation of flights at 924 accounted for 91% of valid complaints in 2021. File photo: Sasko Lazarov
Aviation sector watchdog, the Commission for Aviation Regulation (CAR) last year recovered €579,000 in refunds for disgruntled air passengers over mainly cancelled flights.
That is according to the 2021 CAR annual report which shows that last year it received 1,479 complaints over airlines which was down 67% on the record-breaking 4,543 complaints from airline customers in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The €579,000 recovered in funds by the CAR Air Passenger Rights team is less than half the €1.25m total of recovered refunds in 2020. Along with the €579,000 recovered last year, CAR obtained a further €35,000 in compensation in respect of 897 complaints.
The lodging of the report with the Oireachtas coincides with passenger complaints over Aer Lingus cancelling a number of flights at short notice in recent days with more than 60 flights cancelled at varying notice in the past week.
The report also states in 2021 CAR administered 2,246 claims by customers of collapsed travel firms who received €2.2m in refunds from insolvency protection Bonds held by the Commission, the Traveller’s Protection Fund and refund credit notes.
The bulk of the complaints last year related to the collapse of Joe Walsh Pilgrim tours on April 27, 2021, where CAR received 2,836 claims out of the 2,970 claims made concerning four company collapses.
The report states that the collapse of four travel firms during 2021 “demonstrates the continuing difficulties faced by the industry during the year. We took on additional staff to manage such a large volume of claims”.
Concerning passenger airline complaints, the report shows that Ryanair accounted for 44% of complaints with Aer Lingus accounting for 26% in 2021 reflecting their domination of the air travel industry here. The figures show that 52 other airlines accounted for the remaining 30% of complaints to CAR.
The number of complaints against Ryanair totalled 647 with 69%, or 427, of concluded complaints to date upheld and 192 not sustained against the airline. A further 28 investigations are ongoing.
The report shows that 387 complaints were made against Aer Lingus with 65%, or 243, of concluded complaints upheld and 132 not upheld. The Commission has investigations ongoing in 12 Aer Lingus complaints.
Valid complaints relating to cancellation of flights at 924 accounted for 91% of valid complaints in 2021. The report states that as travel restrictions were lifted in 2021 “we began to see an increase in cases where compensation may be payable to the passengers in the absence of an extraordinary circumstance”.
The report shows that in 2021 the Air Passenger Rights team received the highest volume of queries and complaints in the first quarter of the year “as passengers who had hoped to travel towards the end of 2020 encountered difficulties obtaining refunds for cancelled flights”.
The report adds that “with restrictions ongoing and uncertainty about travel restrictions, passenger numbers stayed low and the volume of complaints and queries returned to pre-pandemic levels as a result”. The figures show that 562 complaints were received in January and February 2021 alone.
Last year, the Commission recorded a surplus of €451,00. The Commission’s costs totalled €3.87m as its net income amounted to €4.32m.
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