The latest official statistics from the UK's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) have been released, covering the period from mid-2024 through to March 2025. This comprehensive data set provides a detailed insight into passenger grievances and operational issues within the aviation sector, revealing some unexpected leaders in the complaint rankings.
Overall Complaint Volume and Common Issues
According to the CAA's findings, passengers lodged over 43,000 formal complaints about airlines operating in the UK during this timeframe. The spectrum of issues reported by travellers is broad, but several key areas consistently emerged as primary sources of dissatisfaction.
The most frequent grievances cited by passengers included flight disruptions and cancellations, instances of denied boarding, problems with lost or damaged luggage, and inadequate assistance provided for disabled passengers. These categories highlight ongoing challenges within the industry regarding reliability and customer care standards.
Complaints Per Passenger: A Revealing Metric
When examining the data on a per-passenger basis, a clear frontrunner emerges. Wizz Air, the Hungarian low-cost carrier, recorded the highest volume of complaints per million passengers carried during the review period.
This performance sees Wizz Air surpassing Ryanair for this particular unwanted accolade, indicating a higher rate of passenger dissatisfaction relative to its traffic volume. The figures suggest that, while other airlines may have higher total complaint numbers, Wizz Air's ratio of grievances to passengers is notably elevated.
Flight Cancellation Leaders
Separate analysis of cancellation data, as reported by flight compensation specialist FlightRight, provides additional context. Dutch airline KLM cancelled the most flights in the year to March 2025, grounding a total of 2,760 services.
British Airways followed with 1,763 cancellations, closely trailed by Germany's Lufthansa with 1,757 grounded flights. However, when considering cancellation rates as a percentage of total services, Finnair emerges with the highest proportion.
The Finnish carrier cancelled 3.35% of its operations during the five-month period from the CAA data, affecting more than 43,000 individual journeys. This percentage-based metric offers a different perspective on operational reliability beyond sheer volume numbers.
Industry Implications and Passenger Awareness
These latest figures from the Civil Aviation Authority serve as a crucial resource for both industry stakeholders and the travelling public. For airlines, the data highlights areas requiring operational improvement and enhanced customer service protocols.
For passengers, the statistics provide valuable insight when making travel decisions, offering evidence-based information about which carriers are generating the highest levels of dissatisfaction. The CAA's ongoing monitoring and publication of this data plays a vital role in maintaining transparency and accountability within the UK aviation sector.
