A new report has revealed which airlines received the most complaints by customers in 2024, and European carriers made up seven of the top 10, with Ryanair ranking in the number one spot with over 30,000 complaints.

Digital marketing agency, Ink Digital, looked at data reported by the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) about passenger complaints made in Q1-3 of 2024. Its report categorised airlines by number of complaints, number of monthly lost luggage searches, average flight delay time, and average flight cancellations.

Ryanair received the worst feedback, with 33,320 complaints. Notably, it had better results in most categories than easyJet, which came in third with 11,688 complaints. Ryanair had on average 985 lost bag searches and easyJet 1,208. It also had lowest average flight cancellations of the list with 0.3%, while easyJet had 1%, and both reported the same average delay time of 18 minutes.

In second place, British Airways (BA) received 25,396 complaints. It had the highest average cancellation rate, 2.8%, and average lost luggage searches, with 6,938, and it tied with Virgin Atlantic Airways for an average delay time of 15 minutes.

Wizz Air had 10,006 complaints putting it in fourth place, although it ranked below most of the other airlines in the analyses categories. It received one of the lowest average luggage search numbers at 210, an average delay of 14 minutes, and tied with easyJet for an average cancellation rate of 1%.

Despite ranking below Wizz Air in complaint numbers with 6,476, Air France-KLM performed worse across the board. It was second to BA for highest lost luggage search average, 1,703, and highest average cancellation rates, 2.1%.

With 2,843 and 2,108 complaints, TUI Airways and Thy Turkish Airlines placed sixth and seventh on the list, respectively.

In eighth, Virgin Atlantic Airways was the first carrier on the list to compile less than 1,000 complaints at 886. It saw an average lost luggage search of 193, and the third highest average flight cancellation rate with 1.9%.

To round out the list, Air Portugal ranked ninth and Air India in tenth.

Given that budget airlines like Ryanair, easyJet, and Wizz Air received higher volumes of complaints despite performing better across the categories than some of the flag carriers, the data suggests there are other factors affecting customer perceptions of the companies.

Things like customer service or cabin comfort were not factored into the report but could be influencing the results regardless.

The UK CAA report can be found online here.