The number of dissatisfied travelers with complaints about flight cancellations or delays more than doubled in 2022.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin Canceled flights and canceled train journeys are causing the number of customer complaints to skyrocket. This is the result of preliminary figures from the arbitration board for public transport (SÖP) for the year 2022, which is available to the Handelsblatt.
As of the December 19 deadline, the facility had received a total of 28,021 requests for arbitration. This corresponds to an increase in complaints of around 86 percent compared to the previous year (15,040 requests for arbitration).
Again this year, most customer complaints related to flights and Deutsche Bahn. In 2022, 23,607 consumers contacted the SÖP about flight cancellations or delays, more than twice as many as in the previous year (11,736).
The number of complaints also went up significantly on the railways. Since January 2022, the SÖP has registered a total of 3,524 consumer complaints – mainly due to train cancellations and delays. This corresponds to an increase of around 51 percent compared to 2021 (2,330 requests for arbitration).
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The SÖP is recognized by the federal government as an arbitration board for traffic and travel. She also takes care of complaints about trips by long-distance bus or local public transport.
Bahn causes permanent dissatisfaction with their customers
According to the information, these each make up a significantly smaller part of the applications. For long-distance buses, for example, there were only 247 applications for arbitration – around 30 percent more than in the same period last year.
The complaints relate in particular to what happened in rice this summer. Thousands of connections had to be canceled mainly due to staff shortages at airports and airlines. Before a request for arbitration is possible, travelers must first contact the respective company with their concerns.
>> Read also: Six reasons why Deutsche Bahn is failing on its own.
The railway, meanwhile, causes permanent displeasure among its customers. This is mainly due to the lack of quality and reliability, which even Bahn boss Richard Lutz described as “unacceptable” in an interview with the Handelsblatt. Although the group announced a punctuality target of 80 percent at the beginning of the year, it conceded this plan after a few weeks.
The long-distance trains of Deutsche Bahn were more reliable in September than in the previous months – but many are still too late. According to the company, almost 63 percent reached their destination without any major delay.
The main problem remains the numerous construction sites, which slow down traffic while demand is high at the same time. According to Bahn, numerous goods transports were also shifted from ship to rail, especially in the dry summer months. Due to the low water, ships could not navigate on many sections of the Rhine.
Long-distance, regional and freight trains then slow each other down on the network, which is overloaded in many places. The 9-euro ticket had further increased the utilization of passenger transport in the summer months, especially on tourist routes. The railway and the federal government want to get the problem under control with a general renovation of the particularly heavily used routes in the coming years.
More: Unpunctual trains, poor quality – Bahn boss Lutz promises: “It will be better in 2023”