For Immediate Release
Monday, February 12, 2001
Contact: Jim Berard
(202) 225-6260
Oberstar: IG’s Report Shows Airlines Still Lagging in Customer Service
Carriers fail to address root of problems
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WASHINGTON—Rep. James L. Oberstar (Minn.), Ranking Democratic Member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, has released the following statement in reaction to the Final Report on Airline Customer Service from the Inspector General of the Department of Transportation. The report was made public at noon today.
Although the airlines have made progress in some areas of customer service, the Inspector General’s report shows there is need for much more improvement.
Most significantly, the report shows that the airlines are failing to address the root causes of the problems most likely to result in customer dissatisfaction: delays, cancellations and lost luggage. The report cites Bureau of Transportation Statistics figures that show the number of flights that were chronically delayed or cancelled increased 390 percent between 1999 and 2000. Complaints of lost or mishandled luggage doubled from 1998 to 1999, and increased another 19 percent in 2000.
Further, the report found that the Department of Transportation’s resources for protecting consumers are seriously inadequate. I call upon Secretary Mineta to ensure his staff has the personnel and budget it needs to carry out this important responsibility to the flying public.
Finally, I firmly believe that customer service will not improve, and will likely worsen, if the Justice Department approves the pending merger between United Airlines and US Airways and others that are likely to follow. It has been my experience, having followed trends and events in aviation for 38 years, that consumer service generally falls by the wayside while management grapples with merging two proud airline cultures, and dealing with employee unrest over potential closing of facilities and the integration of seniority lists. I have experienced these problems first-hand in my area of the country -- the Northwest-Republic merger led to major service difficulties that lasted for years. We can also look to the service problems created by recent mergers in the railroad industry for additional evidence.
If the airlines are truly dedicated to improving customer service, perhaps they should focus their energies on reducing delays and congestion before inflicting more pain on consumers through these contemplated mergers.