- Spirit Airlines received the most complaints from US passengers in April, a DoT report said.
- American Airlines had the second-highest number of complaints, per the report.
- There were more than 5,000 complaints lodged against US airlines in April, the report said.
The American airline that received the most complaints in April was Spirit Airlines, according to the US Department of Transportation (DoT).
Spirit racked up 637 complaints in April, the DoT said in a report titled "Air Travel Consumer Report." Most of the carrier's complaints were filed over flight problems, including cancellations, delays, and misconnections, per the report.
Overall, Spirit had 394 complaints for flight problems, 122 complaints over refunds, and 30 complaints each for baggage and reservations, ticketing, and boarding, the DoT said in its report. Other complaints were filed for fares, customer service, and oversale, per the report.
The DoT said in the report there were a total of 5,079 complaints lodged against US airlines by American airline passengers in April. This was more than a 320% increase from April 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic began, when the number of complaints came to 1,206, per a previous DoT report.
Complaints in April this year were up 15% from the previous month of March, when US passengers reported 4,423 problems with airlines, per a DoT report last month.
Trailing behind Spirit as the second most-complained about airline was American Airlines, per the DoT's latest report. Travelers filed 491 issues against American — the highest number of complaints were over flight cancellations and delays, according to the report.
Spirit and American didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment made outside of normal working hours.
Spirit flight attendants protested at airports in Dallas, Las Vegas, and Orlando in mid-April over staff shortages and flight cancellations, which meant some crew ended up stranded overnight in airports and sometimes left without hotel accommodation, according to the Association of Flight Attendants – Communications Workers of America.
Passenger complaints come as the airline industry grapples with a staffing shortage during the busy summer travel season, causing delays and cancellations to flights.