U.S. airline passenger complaints jump 70 percent after incidents

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-airlines-complaints-idUSKBN19534C

U.S. airline passenger complaints leapt 70 percent in April from a year earlier after a series of high-profile incidents including a passenger being dragged off a United Airlines flight, the government said on Wednesday.

Complaints rose to 1,909 in April, the U.S. Department of Transportation reported, as consumer anger at airlines boiled over following video showing David Dao being violently removed from a United flight on April 9 to make room for crew members.

This and other airline incidents caught on mobile phone videos have been widely broadcast on social media, prompting congressional hearings with airline executives that raised questions about customer service and airline cost-cutting. Congress may take up the issue of airplane passenger rights when it considers a bill to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration.

"If airlines don’t get their act together, we are going to act, it is going to be one size fits all,” said Bill Shuster, chairman of the House of Representatives’ transportation committee at a hearing in May. "Seize this opportunity because if you don’t, we’re going to come, and you’re not going to like it."