Tigerair has officially been declared Australia's worst airline – for the third year running.
According to the federal government-appointed airline ombudsman, Tigerair not only received the highest number of complaints, but they were also more than last year. That suggests Tigerair's new parent, Virgin Australia Holdings Ltd (ASX: VAH) is struggling to turn around the abysmal performance of the airline since buying the remaining 40% of Tigerair it didn't own in October 2014.
The Airline Customer Advocate was established in 2012 to help resolve complaints from customers of five airlines, including Qantas Airways Limited (ASX: QAN) and its budget carrier Jetstar, Virgin, Tigerair and Regional Express Holdings Ltd (ASX: REX). Alliance Aviation Services Ltd (ASX: AQZ) doesn't participate in the process – although one could argue it predominantly carries fly in, fly out workers and does contract work, rather than commercial flights.
The top 5 complaint issues in 2014 were:-
- Refund requests – 31%
- Flight delay or cancellation – 15%
- Terms and conditions – 12%
- Fees or charges – 8%
- Airport customer services – 7%
Tigerair led in all categories, despite flying considerably fewer passengers during the year (apart from Regional Express). The airline carried 3.3 million passengers over the 2014 year, compared to 17.7 million for Jetstar, 19.8 million for Virgin and 27.5 million for Qantas.
As an example, Tigerair received 4.71 refund request complaints per 100,000 passengers compared to just 0.75 at parent Virgin and 1.11 at main rival Jetstar. The airline also received 2.28 complaints about delays or cancellations per 100,000 passengers compared to 0.2 for Qantas.
Clearly, Virgin CEO John Borghetti is unlikely to be very happy about Tigerair's performance, particularly since it doesn't appear to be improving. Virgin is relying on Tigerair to compete on the same level as Jetstar, but at this stage, Jetstar is leagues ahead.
The award for best airline goes to Regional Express, who had by far the lowest number of complaints per 100,000 passengers.
