Involuntary ‘bumping’ of ticketed airline passengers has declined to the lowest level on record, according to data from the US Department of Transportation (DOT).
The Los Angeles Times reports that the 12 largest US airlines bumped — or denied boarding to — a total of 2,745 passengers between July and September of 2017.
That’s out of 177 million travellers, a rate of 0.15 per 10,000, which is the lowest frequency reported since DOT began tracking bumping in 1995.
In the same quarter of 2016, the rate was 0.69 per 10,000 travellers.
Airlines promised to reduce bumping rates after a highly publicized incident in April 2017 where a passenger was dragged off a United Airlines flight after being bumped after being seated on the plane.
The passenger, whose forcible removal was captured on video that went viral, was being bumped from his paid seat to make room for United employees.
The latest data showed that Delta Air Lines and Virgin America had the lowest bump rates, both at 0.01 per 10,000 travellers, followed by JetBlue at 0.02 and United at 0.02.