Air travelers, feeling the squeeze, complain more

WASHINGTON – Airline passengers are getting grumpier, and it's little wonder.

Airlines keep shrinking the size of seats to stuff more people onto planes, those empty middle seats that once ­provided a little more room are now occupied and more people with tickets are being turned away because flights are overbooked.

Private researchers who analyze federal data on airline performance also said in a report being released Monday that consumer complaints to the Department of Transportation surged by one-fifth last year even though other ­measures such as on-time arrivals and mishandled baggage show that airlines are doing a better job.

"The way airlines have taken 130-seat airplanes and expanded them to 150 seats to squeeze out more revenue, I think, is finally catching up with them," said Dean Headley, a business professor at Wichita State University who has cowritten the annual report for 23 years.

"People are saying, 'Look, I don't fit here. Do something about this.' At some point, airlines can't keep shrinking seats to put more people into the same tube," he said.

The industry is even looking at ways to make today's smaller-than-a-broom closet toilets more compact in the hope of squeezing a few more seats onto planes.

Delta Air Lines, according to the Wall Street Journal, will unveil new onboard bathrooms on the 737-900s it expects to begin flying later this year.

In recent years, some airlines have shifted to larger planes that can carry more people, but that hasn't been enough to make up for an ­overall reduction in flights.

The rate at which passengers with tickets were denied seats because planes were full rose to 0.97 denials per 10,000 passengers last year, compared with 0.78 in 2011.

It used to be in cases of overbookings that airlines usually could find a passenger who would volunteer to give up a seat in exchange for cash, a free ticket or some other compensation. Not anymore.

"Since flights are so full, there are no seats on those next flights. So people say, 'No, not for $500, not for $1,000,' " said industry analyst Robert W. Mann Jr.

Regional carrier SkyWest had the highest involuntary denied boardings rate last year, 2.32 per 10,000 passengers.

United Airlines had the highest consumer complaint rate of the 14 airlines included in the report, with 4.24 complaints per 100,000 passengers. That was nearly double the airline's complaint rate in 2011. Southwest had the lowest rate, at 0.25.

Consumer complaints were significantly higher in the summer months when planes are especially crowded.

"As airplanes get fuller, complaints get higher because people just don't like to be sardines," Mann said.

The complaints are regarded as indicators of a larger problem because many passengers don't realize they can file complaints with the Transportation Department, which regulates airlines.

At the same time complaints were increasing, airlines were doing a better job of getting passengers to their ­destinations on time.

The industry's on-time performance has improved in recent years, partly due to airlines' decision to cut back on the number of flights.

"We've shown over the 20 years of doing this that whenever the system isn't taxed as much — fewer flights, fewer people, less bags — it performs better. It's when it reaches a critical mass that it starts to fracture," Headley said.

The industry's shift to charging fees for extra bags, or sometimes charging fees for any bags, has significantly reduced the rate of lost or mishandled bags. Passengers are checking fewer bags than before, and carrying more bags onto planes when permitted.

The report's ratings are for airlines that carry at least 1 percent of the passengers who flew domestically last year.