Passenger complaints against Singapore budget carriers rise sharply

The Consumers Association of Singapore (CASE) has reported that the number of complaints it received against low-cost airlines has more than doubled in this past year, with 157 received to date in 2008, as compared with 75 in 2007.

This represents the highest number of complaints the association has received since budget carriers began operating in Singapore in 2004.

Tiger Airways, the busiest budget airline operating from Singapore’s Changi Airport, was complained about by customers the most often, with the association receiving 84 complaints about the carrier this year, compared with 40 in 2007.

Jetstar Asia Airways customers registered 54 complaints - up from 31 in the previous year.

The consumer watchdog group said that most of the complaints involved dissatisfaction with service, from loss of baggage to lack of communication over cancelled flights.

Other customers were unhappy when airlines failed to honour contractual obligations, such as cancelling flights without prior notice, or misleading customers about airfares.

The executive director of CASE, Seah Seng Choon, commented that the rise in the number of complaints could be attributed to the fact that there has been a significant increase in the number of passengers flying on budget services as economic conditions have worsened – and the recent problems in Bangkok when the airports were shut down by protesters.

Seah said: “We agree that budget airlines should provide some degree of support whenever passengers are stranded. Doing nothing is not acceptable.”

“Keeping costs to a bare minimum doesn’t mean that they (the carriers) shouldn’t pay attention to customer service,” he added.

Thanks to travel.asiaone.com for the above quotes, for more information on this article please visit their website.

www.case.org.sg