Tigerair Is Hands Down the Worst Airline, Says Ombudsman
By Esther Han, The Sydney Morning Herald | May 19, 2015
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For the third year running, the federal government-appointed airline ombudsman has declared Tigerair as Australia's worst-performing airline.
The Airline Customer Advocate's annual report for 2014 shows the striped budget carrier has not only copped the biggest number of complaints compared with four major competitors, but also an increasing number.
The ombudsman Julia Lines, whose position is funded by the airlines, revealed she received 47.1 complaints about refund requests against Tiger for every million customers it carried in 2014, compared with 11.1 complaints for Jetstar, 7.5 for Virgin, 4.4 for Qantas, and 2.8 for Regional Express.
Tiger also received the most complaints linked to flight delay or cancellation, unfair terms and conditions, unexpected fees and charges, and poor airport customer service.
In 2014, Tiger flew 3.3 million passengers. It is owned by Virgin Australia.
Tiger's head of communications, Vanessa Regan, pinned the airline's poor on-time performance throughout last year on "airport infrastructure limitations" and "flight network changes".
"Both of these issues have been addressed and the airline's on-time performance has improved considerably with consistently low cancellation rates," she said.
"Tigerair's flying increased significantly throughout 2014 and the airline has made significant progress throughout the year in improving customer satisfaction, particularly in the second half."
A customer must first attempt to have a complaint resolved by the airline before escalating it to the advocate.
Ms Regan said the number of customer queries and complaints received through the airline's online customer correspondence portal fell between 2014-13, despite big growth of the business in that time.
The advocate was hit with 1132 "eligible" complaints against the five airlines, up 13 percent on the previous year's figure.
Overall, 31 percent of complaints were for refund requests, 15 percent for delays and cancellations, 12 percent for disputed terms and conditions, 8 percent for fees or charges, and 7 percent for poor customer service.
Only 57 percent of the complaints were resolved in 2014, down from 66 percent in 2013.
In further bad news, the average time required by the advocate to resolve a complaint ballooned from 14.9 days in 2013 to 18.3 in 2014.
The advocate does not have independent power to make decisions that affect the relevant airline's response to a complaint.
Its aim is to reduce complaints about airlines and reduce the number of complaints that are inadequately addressed. Ms Lines has not responded to multiple requests for comment.