Applications for consumer relief against airlines topped 3,000 last year, up 27% from the year before. When compared with the number of users, applications for relief were concentrated on foreign airlines.
According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's air consumer report on the 15th, applications for relief related to domestic and international air passenger transport services filed with the Korea Consumer Agency (KCA) last year totaled 3,216, up 26.8% from 2,537 the year before.
By airline nationality, domestic carriers accounted for 1,458 cases and foreign carriers for 1,099, increases of 22.5% and 32.4% from the previous year, respectively. The remaining 659 cases were those in which applications for relief were filed with both domestic and foreign airlines or were still being processed and thus not classified.
Although the total number of relief applications was higher for domestic airlines, the rate of applications against foreign airlines was higher when considering the number of passengers who actually flew.
According to Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport air statistics, 53.81 million passengers used domestic airlines last year, while foreign airlines carried 5.38 million, 10% of that figure. However, the number of relief applications against foreign airlines reached 75% of those against domestic airlines.
Looking at the number of complaints per 1 million air consumers that the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) releases quarterly, in the fourth quarter last year domestic airlines had 11 cases and foreign airlines had 31.2. In the third quarter last year, domestic airlines had 12.4 cases and foreign airlines had 25.3.
The higher rate of applications against foreign airlines stems from insufficient Korean-language guidance on foreign airline websites and unclear instructions for domestic consumers. It is not easy to apply directly to the airline for relief, and many cases take a long time to process due to poor contact.
By type of harm reported last year, 1,896 cases, or 59% of the total, involved demands for excessive penalties when attempting to cancel a ticket purchase, or delays in or refusals of refunds.
Next came "failure to perform carriage (cancellation) or delay," where flights did not depart at the promised time, with 564 cases (18%). Lost, damaged, or delayed checked baggage accounted for 125 cases (4%), followed by failure to board due to insufficient provision of seat assignment and related information at 94 cases (3%).
Applications for relief over airline service harm are first received by each airline, and then forwarded to the consumer agency if processing within a set period is difficult or if the applicant disputes the result. However, delays due to force majeure such as weather, airport conditions, or unexpected maintenance for safe operations are not subject to relief.
The Korea Consumer Agency is monitoring situations in which consumer harm occurs to improve the handling of relief applications and is recommending improvements, such as requiring foreign airlines with particularly high numbers of applications to submit harm-reduction plans.
Consumers should, to prevent harm, check whether cancellations are allowed and what the penalty rules are before purchasing tickets. After buying tickets, they should regularly check whether the flight schedule has changed, and after receiving checked baggage, they should inspect it for damage or loss. If there is a problem, they should notify the airline immediately and keep supporting documents to prepare for any later dispute.