EasyJet has had the most compensation enquiries levelled against it in the first half of the year, followed by Ryanair and Thomas Cook.
According to data from flight compensation company EUclaim, internal data shows 5,641 people sought compensation from via the company from easyJet; 4,781 for Ryanair; 3,807 for Thomas Cook; 3,423 for British Airways; and 2,422 for Thomson, in the first half of 2016.
The data reveals that the number of people seeking compensation against budget airline Ryanair has more than doubled in the last year.
Fellow budget carrier easyJet has seen the number of cases through EUclaim increase every year for the last three years.
The airline also has the dishonour of topping the EUclaim ‘Carriers of Shame’ list for the first half of 2016, with a whopping 5,641 claims being processed against them by the flight compensation company.
The number of claims against British Airways have also increased year on year.
According to EUclaim Monarch has been steadily improving its services, reducing the 2,599 claims made against it in 2014 to 2,001 in the same period in 2015.
Adeline Noorderhaven, UK manager for EUclaim, said: “The number of complaints in 2016 has been sky-high.
“It is likely that a prolonged period of bad weather toward the end of March, as well as a wash-out June played a part, but by far and away the biggest contributing factor has been the consistent strike action in France and Italy, which has led to flight misery for passengers as cancellations and delays shot through the roof.
“While strike action and bad weather can be considered extraordinary circumstances, airlines need to take more responsibility to ensure that customers are looked after and properly compensated for their loss.
“We are seeing that with the tight crew planning the airlines are not able to deal with these incidents and are allowing their whole rotation to be affected, sometimes even days after the incident.”
EUclaim data also found Norwich Airport as the most likely airport in the country for passengers to see a flight delay or cancellation.
In 2015 EUclaim processed 67 claims against airlines departing or arriving at the regional airport, but in 2016 that number rose to 175, a 161% increase on claim enquiries.
Noorderhaven continued: “Weather hasn’t been kind to British airports in 2016.
“Bad weather across Europe – notably Storm Cathy – caused serious problems for flights departing British shores for Europe.
“Glasgow, Edinburgh and Newcastle airports have suffered from an increase in delays and cancellations in 2016. This can be put down to British Airways cancellations from London Heathrow to these regional hubs.”