Few U.S. airline complaints addressed

WASHINGTON, Nov. 14 (UPI) -- Airline passengers this year filed more complaints than ever with the U.S. Department of Transportation, leaving the agency facing a huge backlog of grievances.

There were 8,612 complaints filed through September, a 70 percent increase over last year. The Department of Transportation has resolved 25 investigations with settlement agreements and has levied $1.15 million in fines, USA Today reported Wednesday.

The number of staff members in the Transportation Department enforcement office has dropped from 41 in 2004 to 31. Norman Mineta, who resigned as secretary of transportation in 2006, said that the department "ran into a budgetary buzz saw."

In 17 of the 25 cases closed this year, the airlines involved were foreign carriers, small companies or tour operators. Comair, a regional subsidiary of Delta, agreed to pay $75,000 in penalties for a December 2004 computer crash that forced 1,000 passengers to spend the night at the Cincinnati airport, while JetBlue was fined for failing to provide information on specific flights' on-time performance, USA Today said.