When booking a trip to any destination, flying is a lot of the times, the fastest and safest way to get there. It’s also one of the most expensive, so when flying, passengers expect themselves and their things to arrive with them, wherever they are going. But airlines are prone to losing baggage, having delays, late arrival and departure times and offering few services in flight, and many of these reasons are turning people off from traveling by plane all together. People are cramming more and more into their bags to try and beat he high fees airlines charge to check a bag under the plane, and they are expecting those bags to show up when they depart the plane. But many a traveler has been left at the airport with only their carry-on, which is why it’s often suggested travelers put essentials, and change of under garments, in their carry-on, just in case.
Here is a list of airlines around the world that aren’t doing too well to make passengers trust them when flying. 12 of them have severe problems when it comes to losing passenger’s luggage, while the other 13 aren’t doing themselves any favors with passengers, by making it difficult to check in, or leaving them on the tarmac for long periods of time. There are a lot of moving parts when it comes to flying, security is at an all-time high, and more people are traveling, but it shouldn’t be the most stressful part of the trip.
25 Can't Trust: Air Canada
Air Canada ranked absolute last in passenger satisfaction out of all major North America airlines. According to J.D. Power, Air Canada scored lowest when measured in performance, including cost and fees, in-flight services, aircraft, boarding and deplaning, baggage care, check-in and reservation.
As Canada’s top airline, competition is what many say brings Air Canada down, as there isn’t much of it in Canada, with only one other major airline.
24 Lost Luggage: Alaska Airlines
Alaska Airlines doesn’t just serve Alaska, as it has over 100 destinations and is the fifth largest airline in the United States. According to J.D. Power and Associates, they have the highest customer satisfaction of the traditional airlines for eleven consecutive years.
So that could put someone at ease, even though the reported over 9,200 bags mishandled in October 2018.
With nearly three million flights that month alone, it was double what they did the year before, with just 4,554 complains. Maybe they won’t be getting that 12th award this time around.
23 Can't Trust: Jet Airways
Jet Airways is a major Indian airline out of Mumbai, with a fleet of over 120 planes which they operate to 67 destinations in the world. But they don’t have the greatest on-time performance, and no one wants to be late on a flight.
According to Bloomberg, only 65% of their flights made it in on-time, which is what can definitely set a passenger off and make them not turn back to that airline again.
That’s nearly half their flights being late, so it’s not an airline you can trust.
22 Lost Luggage: Frontier Airlines
Frontier Airlines is the eight-largest commercial airline in the United States, but it pops up on two lists it probably doesn’t want to appear on, that being lost luggage and most complaints.
According to the Department of Transportation, Frontier Airlines lost 2.67 bags for every 1,000 passengers, putting them seventh on the list of 12 major airlines.
They also are 11th, second-to-last in the complaints department, getting 2.78 complaints per 1,000 passengers. That’s not what anyone wants to hear when booking a flight.
21 Can't Trust: Korean Air
It’s not a good sign when your chairman is being questioned by authorities on a variety of charges, including tax evasion, obstruction of business and violating an immigration law, according to South China Morning Post.
The Cho family has had some interesting problems in the past, including their daughter holding up a plan because she was angry over the way nuts were served.
Couple that with their 65 percent on-time performance, Korean Air doesn’t earn much trust in the skies, that’s for sure.
20 Lost Luggage: ExpressJet Airlines
The self-proclaimed ‘Super Regional’ airline based out of Atlanta, ExpressJet has 136 plays and travels to 194 destinations. They also mishandle a lot of luggage.
According to the Department of Transportation, in October 2018 alone they had 3,943 reports of mishandled bags, which is down from their year before of 4,515, except with nearly half the passengers, their average shot up, as they average 5.87 reports of mishandled luggage per every 1,000 passengers.
That’s up for last year, where they were the most reported airline with 3.72 reports per 1,000 passengers.
19 Can't Trust: Pakistan International Airlines
One running joke is that airlines are one of the only businesses that can lie to you and get away with it. Sure, it’s hard to exactly pinpoint an arrival time, but some airlines have a really tough time with it.
Pakistan International Airlines is one of them, as according to Bloomberg, only 61 percent of their flights were on time.
A report in 2014 by Dawn.com, a Pakistan news agency, said that of over 2,450 flights in August 2014, only 44.3 percent of them were on time. It’s worse than a coinflip if your flight would be on time, so don’t plan on it.
18 Lost Luggage: AA
American Airlines is one of the major airlines in the world, as measured by fleet size, no other airline compares, as they have over 951 planes. They have the most passengers carried and most destinations served, so they are bound to have a few slip-ups when it comes to luggage.
Of their over nine million flights in October 2018, the Department of Transportation reported 42,419 reports of mishandled luggage.
So why they may have the most airplanes, they also had the most complaints by passengers in total.
17 Can't Trust: Swoop Airlines
It wasn’t a great start for Swoop Airlines in Canada in 2018, as the ultra-low airline left a really bad taste in the mouth of their early passengers, costing them hundreds of dollars and a lot of grief.
That’s because they had to cancel flights to the United States, according to CTV News, because they didn’t get the right clearance to fly south of the border.
That’s kind of important, don’t you think? It’s hard to put your trust in an airline that forgot a pretty critical part of flying to another country, and this resulted in passengers having to find last-minute flights at very high costs.
16 Lost Luggage: United Airlines
United Airlines is the world’s third largest airline when measured in revenue. With a fleet of over 750 planes, they are a massive company that works out of Chicago’s Willis Tower.
But of the over eight million passengers they had in October 2018, 26,506 of them reported a problem with luggage, about three in every 1,000 people.
That’s way up from the year before when they had 19,276 complains. Not great numbers to hear from a major airline who charges for bags.
15 Can't Trust: JetBlue
In the annual scorecard by the Wall Street Journal, JetBlue ranked last or near the bottom in every category of the major United States airlines.
According to the report, they were last in on-time arrivals and extreme delays and second-to-last in canceled flights and 2-hour tarmac delays.
Overall, they were eighth out of eight airlines, which doesn’t put confidence into passenger’s minds. They did rank second in mishandled baggage, so at least after sitting on the tarmac for two hours, you know you will at least get your bags.
14 Lost Luggage: SkyWest Airlines
SkyWest Airlines is classified as one of the largest airlines in the country, and the largest regional one in North America when measured by fleet size, which is over 460 planes.
But they seem to have an issue holding onto bags and luggage, as the Department of Transportation reported that in October of 2018 alone, they mishandled 12,737 pieces of luggage, accounting for 4.69 bags mishandled for every 1,000 passengers.
Out of all the airlines, they were the fifth most but flew the seventh most flights. And that is up from the year before, where they mishandled 10,022. Starting to a see a trend happening.
13 Can't Trust: EasyJet
Flying should be easy, but with EasyJet, it can be a headache and anything but. The airline out of the United Kingdom was voted the worst airline in the United Kingdom according to the Daily Express, as EasyJet came in 69th place out of 72 airlines on AirHelp’s report this year.
It’s a problem for low-cost airlines in part because they are trying to keep costs down as much as they can, but that sometimes results in sub-par standards and practices, and many delays.
12 Lost Luggage: Iberia
Iberia is the main airline in Spain with a fleet of 85 planes, but it has a large problem making sure passengers are getting their bags when they fly. According to the Telegraph, Iberia reportedly lost 19.2 bags per 1,000 passengers, and that’s just in the winter months when people could have less luggage with them as they are heading to warmer clients and don’t need coats and boots.
When you consider the thousands of flights a day they run, that means hundreds of people are losing their bags each day with this Spanish airline.
11 Can't Trust: AVIOR Airlines
Avoir Airlines is based in Venezuela and operates planes in the southern Caribbean, and out of Miami. According to Aviation Safety Network, the airline was banned from flying in Europe because of its lack of safety and failing to meet requirements.
On top of that, the Telegraph revealed that they had an on-time performance of just 53 percent, making them the second-to-last airline in being punctual and meeting arrival times.
There are a lot of good reasons to pick another airline, and safety and lateness are very good reasons.
10 Lost Luggage: Mesa Airlines
Mesa Airlines, which operates as American Eagle and United Express, is a regional airline out of Arizona, that was finally booming with the most added aircraft of any regional fleet.
Too bad it hasn’t helped them keep hold of passenger’s luggage, as the airline losses 4.68 bags per 1,000 passengers.
In 2012, according to Travel and Leisure, they had over 36,000 reports of baggage lost, while also having one of the worst percentages of bumped passengers amongst the 15 major airlines.
9 Can't Trust: Wizz Air
Wizz Air is anything but its namesake, as according to the Telegraph, Wizz Air had the worst punctuality of the biggest airlines operating in the United Kingdom in 2017.
The no-frills airline built itself on going to lesser-known destinations for cheap prices, but it’s record of being late, with flights 23 minutes late on average, isn’t doing much to help build trust in the cheap airline.
But if you go cheap, you get what you expect, and depending on the cost, perhaps 23 minutes isn’t that big of a deal.
8 Lost Luggage: Southwest Airlines
No one flew more passengers in October 2018 than Southwest Airlines according to the Department of Transportation with over 13 million passengers.
But over 39,000 reports were filed of mishandled baggage, which equates to 2.9 reports per 1,000 passengers.
That’s a lot of reports to have from a major airline, although it is down from the year before. It’s difficult to trust an airline with that many problems when they are moving that many people, as it should just be cruise control for them.
7 Can't Trust: Ryanair
Ryanair, which is called Europe’s safest and popular airline, came last in a passenger survey on satisfaction, which was conducted by Which? Magazine. The Independent reported that due to pilot rostering, Ryanair had to cancel hundreds of flights on short notice in 2017, which is not something that puts a lot of trust in your airline when they can’t even book their pilots correctly.
At least they have the best accident record of any European flight, that is, if you can actually get on a flight.
6 Lost Luggage: Air France
Air France makes the list of luggage offenders, as they lost over 18.9 bags for every 1,000 passengers who flew their airline in 2009, according to the Telegraph.
France’s largest airline has a fleet of over 212 planes It’s hard to imagine how a major airline can lose so many bags when that is their main job, getting people and their belongings to the right destination.
European airlines seem to fare a lot worse than ones from the United States in losing baggage.