Madrid, 6 May 2021 (ESA) 

The State Aviation Safety Agency (AESA) has carried out a “Study of user satisfaction with the services provided by AESA in 2021 in the field of Passenger Rights” which reveals that 71.89 % of passengers who claimed their rights to airlines through the agency are satisfied with the service provided.

 In 2021, AESA received 20,145 complaints, of which 48.2 % of the passengers who came to AESA in 2021 are "very satisfied", 23.6 % are "satisfied and 28.2 % dissatisfied.

The study was carried out by means of an online survey among the 46,002 passengers who received a response from AESA to their complaint in 2021, based on a sample of 1,966 valid complete responses, giving it a level of confidence above 95 %.

The objective was to measure the Agency’s quality of service in the area of passenger complaints about their rights under European regulations. To this end, questions have been raised on aspects such as the clarity of management, the simplicity and agility of the process, and the attention received by the Agency’s staff, in order to verify the extent to which the Agency has been able to meet the expectations of its users before resorting to its services.

48.2 % of users are “Very satisfied” with the quality of the service provided by EASA in all its indicators, clarity, simplicity of the complaint process, agility of it and attention by AESA staff.

23.6 % are considered “satisfied” in the clarity of management, the simplicity of the process and the attention received, but “Moderately satisfied” with the agility of the process. 14.6 % are “satisfied” with the clarity and attention received, but “moderately satisfied” with simplicity and dissatisfied with agility. 13.6 % of users are “Very Unsatisfied” with all indicators.

In 2021, and in line with the results of previous years, the assessment is positive and even higher than in 2020, as more users were detected in the very satisfied group, while the number of satisfied users is reduced, but not in line with the agility of the process.

Perception of the protection of their rights

49.6 % of the users surveyed have a maximum perception of EASA’s defence of their rights. To them, they are added the 10.7 % that values this protection with a 9 on the scale of 0 to 10. Conversely, 20.6 % values negatively (below the value 5 of that scale) to EASA in this respect.

Thus, for each user who perceives that the Agency does not properly protect their rights, there are 2.9 who value the Agency’s work in this work of defending passengers’ rights to the maximum. Thus, the average perception puts this score at a favorable value of 7.44 points.

In addition, 62.4 % of the users who came to AESA in the course of 2021 would recommend another person with the same problem to go to the Agency in defence of their rights and 12 % would not recommend it in any case.

Assessment of EASA’s resolution

Six out of ten users (60.4 %) fully agree with the decision issued by AESA to the complaint and 10.3 % show complete rejection.

Furthermore, according to the information provided by users, 80.2 % of the complaints processed in EASA have been fully or partially dealt with by airlines, and even on 11.4 % of the occasions, these companies advance and respond to the user’s requests before receiving the Agency’s final report. However, 19.8 % of passengers say that the airlines have not complied with AESA’s resolution.

When the airline has failed to comply with AESA’s decision to 54 % of the passengers who finally chose to go to court, AESA’s report proved to be of considerable use to them in court.

Improving the quality of air transport services and the protection of passengers’ rights is one of EASA’s strategic objectives by monitoring compliance with Passenger Rights regulations by addressing complaints, inspections and penalties.

• User satisfaction study with the services provided by EASA, 2021