10-of-most-unreliable-airlines

Once upon a time, in a world far far away, travelling by air was actually enjoyable. Airlines had personalised service, legroom was bountiful and they couldn't give away enough food and drink during your flight! How things in the airline industry have changed.

For most people travelling by air now involves more stress than a bad week at the office: additional charges for baggage and checkin, fuel surcharges, rigourous security checks, queues - and that's before you even get onboard! At least the airlines treat their paying customers well, I hear you questionably say. Wrong. If you are unfortunate enough to book with one of these airlines then you're troubles, my good friend, may have only just begun!

So here, in all their glory, are ten airlines plagued by a litany of overbooking, delays, cancellations and failed safety inspections.


Nepal Airlines, Nepal



Nepal Airlines: This is another one of those airline options that people in the region often choose because it's cheaper than the competition, however they usually find out that there's a reason for this since the airline is notorious for delayed and cancelled flights. Reportedly, this airline sends delayed passengers to the airline headquarters to make arrangements for alternative flights rather than just helping them get on another plane since they're already at the airport. It then ends up costing customers extra money to make those alternative plans.

Additional problems include that the former chairman was put in jail in 2005 for corruption and that the planes for this airline have a history of being grounded for failure to meet safety conditions. On the plus side, the airline is trying to make things better; in 2007, they sacrificed 2 goats in front of a plane in order to please the sky god and resume good flight conditions!


Varig Airlines, Brazil



Varig Airlines: This airline has had a history of problems and recent reports indicate that it remains unreliable despite efforts to improve service. For several years, people anticipated that this airline would go out of business due in no small part to financial issues. It's a bad sign when the bank shows up at the airport and actually seizes one of your planes since you haven't paid them!

Throughout 2006 Varig was significantly downsized and was subsequently purchased by another company in 2007. It was hoped that this could turn things around. However, reports from customers in 2008 indicate that the airline remains unreliable; one customer has said 'the crew try their best but are let down by ancient aircraft, unpunctual flights and seats that are dirty.' Nice. Oddly Varig is quite efficient when dealing with delays; it has a system in place to email people (often in the middle of the night) to let them know that their planes will be delayed for hours.


Alitalia Airlines, Italy



Alitalia Airlines: This large airline is so notoriously bad that there is an entire website devoted to providing consumers with information about why they should boycott their flights, (a website that Alitalia tried unsuccessfully to have shut down). In 2006, one blog named it the worst airline of the year due to constant strikes, cancelled flights and general ongoing delays and service issues.

Financial problems have caused these same issues to continue on into 2008. In fact, Alitalia just received an emergency loan from the government to help it avoid complete collapse (which the EU is investigating for issues of legality). Either way, many say that the airline's demise is inevitable.


United Airlines, USA



United Airlines: This airline has regularly been called one of the worst airlines in the world because of constant delays that are compounded by horrible customer service. Just one example of a typical problem with this airline was the case of a woman who was returning from Cancun last year and got stranded in Mexico when United cancelled her flight. The airline basically told her, 'it's your problem, not ours' and it ended up costing her nearly $1,200 to get new tickets on another flight!

In one set of reviews from a site that ranks airlines based on comfort, customer service and delays, the highest rank for United was in the area of on-time flights and that was only a 4 out of 10. It is believed that the problems are at least partly due to the nearly constant financial issues the airline faces, a problem that they've tried to remedy by overselling seats which sometimes leads to delays of more than seven hours for customers on their flights.


Aeromexico, Mexico



Aeromexico: This airline operates over six hundred daily flights, which is apparently too much for them to handle because they're constantly receiving complaints about delays, poor customer service and lost baggage.

For example, one customer reported an incident a few months ago in which she had taken three students on a Spring Break trip from the USA to Nicaragua that was supposed to have a one night sleepover in Mexico City. When they arrived in Mexico City, the airline told them that the flight to Nicaragua had been delayed and that it would be eight days before they could get a new flight. The group decided to just return back to the USA; however Aeromexico couldn't get them back there for another five days so they were stuck hanging out in Mexico City for almost a full week on their own tab.


Air India, India



Air India: The one thing that can be said for this airline is that it gets some points for consistency; unfortunately they're awarded that honour only because they are consistently delayed. In 2005, customers experienced long periods of time just sitting on planes that pilots refused to fly because of safety concerns. In 2006, one customer reported that a flight was cancelled because there were too few people on it to make flying profitable so they were delayed to the point of needing to purchase a ticket on another airline.

In 2007, there was a day on which five flights were cancelled leaving approximately one thousand people stranded for as long as 24 hours. Air India's problems continued into 2008 with numerous complaints of overbooking, sitting in cabins without food for up to six hours and regular delays.


Ariana Afghan Airlines, Afghanistan



Ariana Afghan Airlines: This airline is so bad that the EU has banned all but one of its planes from flying in Europe due to concerns about safety. One report states that Ariana Afghan Airlines have crashed more planes than are currently working in their fleet.

The airline is notorious for taking bribes; one customer reported that $50 would get you on a flight despite an announcement that the flight was delayed. However, the real concern comes from more recent reports that $500 will get you a pilot's license to fly with Ariana! Some hope that increased political stability in this part of the world could ultimately lead to positive changes for this airline but for now it's not one that you want to fly with.


Cebu Pacific, Philippines



Cebu Pacific: This small airline doesn't have a huge itinerary of daily flights to manage so you would think that they could operate the ones they do have scheduled, but that's not the case since they're legendary for constant problems with delays. Currently a domestic airline, Cebu Pacific have ambitious plants to add scheduled international flights. Don't let optimistic ambition blind you from reality: one set of industry reviews has them ranked only 2 out of a possible 10 for on time flights.

Recent complaints focus on the fact that flights are frequently several hours late on both the outgoing and incoming legs, often requiring passengers to wait inside uncomfortable planes for long periods of time while problems are sorted out. Cebu Pacific are also fond of the travellers worst nightmare - additional hidden charges.


Southwest Airlines, USA



Southwest Airlines: Many people in the United States love Southwest Airlines because it offers low prices on many flights. Unfortunately, this is often a case of 'you get what you pay for' as flying with Southwest has been notoriously problematic over the past few years.

There are the typical delays, of course, due to things like weather. It makes sense that Southwest is particularly concerned about weather issues since there was a case back in 2005 in which a Southwest plane mistakenly landed on an icy runway, skidding off of the track and killing a 6 year old boy. In fairness to the airline, it was said that the problem could have been the fault of the air traffic controller there but it put the airline on edge and made it so that weather-related delays were more frequent than necessary.

The following year, Southwest pulled its service out of airports where weather was often a problem, like in San Francisco (although they recently decided to return to servicing that airport this year). Things were good for the airline for a short time until early 2008 when over 40 planes were grounded because of the airline's failure to meet inspection requirements causing widespread delays and cancellations.


AirTran Airways, USA



AirTran Airways: This small airline receives various customer complaints but the main one seems to be a result of the company's practice of denying boarding rights to passengers who arrive late at the gate (even though the plane hasn't even been readied to leave yet). It doesn't seem to matter that the passengers are late because of delays in their connecting flights, delays frequently caused by the airlines themselves; passengers are often left idly at the gate watching the plane as it sits on the runway.

AirTran planes apparently like to just sit at those same gates for a while, with some passengers reporting that they've been stuck sitting on a stationary plane for up to five hours.