From 2021 to 2024, a staggering 7 million pieces of luggage were reported as mishandled, which is every traveler’s worst nightmare. A comprehensive analysis, conducted by the industry experts revealed that American Airlines was the carrier with the highest number of mishandled baggage cases. The study involved examining data from the US Department of Transport Air Travel Consumer Report, which encompassed the total count of bags, wheelchairs, and scooters boarded between January 2021 and January 2024. This data was then compared with the number of reported mishandled items.

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American Airlines has the highest number of mishandled baggage among all airlines in the United States, with a total of 1,750,009 reports. This translates to 8.71 bags mishandled per 1,000 enplaned. In terms of passenger volume, American Airlines is the largest airline globally, with a fleet of 960 mainline aircraft, making it the second largest fleet in the world. Given its immense size, it is not surprising that American Airlines ranks first in this category.

The second airline with the highest number of mishandled baggage is Envoy Airlines, a regional carrier operating over 1,000 daily flights to 150 destinations. Out of the 27 million bags enplaned, 224,236 were reported as mishandled, resulting in a rate of 8.25 mishandled bags per 1,000 enplaned.

Republic Airways is the third airline that has mishandled the highest number of luggage. Out of the 27,750,643 bags that were enplaned, the airline was responsible for mishandling 194,189 pieces of luggage, which is equivalent to 7.01 for every 1,000 bags. Among the mishandled luggage, 489 were wheelchairs or other forms of mobility vehicles, accounting for 12.09 per 1,000 bags.

Alaska Airlines, which is the fifth-largest airline in America and Canada in terms of passenger count, had 402,781 mishandled bags out of the 60 million bags enplaned during the analyzed period. This translates to 6.69 mishandled bags per 1,000.

United Airlines, one of the largest airlines in the world in terms of destinations served, has unfortunately mishandled the most luggage among all the companies. With a staggering number of over 144 million bags enplaned, they have reported 932,000 cases of mishandled luggage, which translates to a rate of 6.43 mishandled bags per 1,000. This figure also includes 3,349 incidents involving wheelchairs or other forms of mobility vehicles.

PSA Airlines, the sixth airline on this list, has also struggled with mishandled baggage. They have enplaned over 34 million pieces of luggage, out of which 23,508 were mobility vehicles or wheelchairs. A total of 207,060 bags were reported as mishandled, resulting in a rate of 6.06 mishandled bags per 1,000. Specifically focusing on mobility vehicles, 510 of them were mishandled, accounting for a rate of 21.69 per 1,000 enplaned.

JetBlue, a budget airline in the United States, operates more than 1,000 flights daily. From 2021 to 2024, a total of over 44 million bags passed through their cargo holds, with 251,388 reported as mishandled. This translates to 5.67 mishandled bags per 1,000 enplaned. When focusing solely on wheelchairs and mobility vehicles, JetBlue had the highest mishandling rate at 33 per 1,000 enplaned, totaling 2,661 out of 79,461.

SkyWest Airlines, on the other hand, ranked eighth with 5.28 mishandled bags per 1,000 enplaned. Despite carrying 38.6 million passengers in 2023 with a fleet of 500 planes, SkyWest mishandled a total of 439,290 passenger bags across the three years.

Delta Airlines operates as a major carrier in the United States, offering services to more than 300 destinations through a network of over 5,000 daily flights. Out of the 217 million pieces of luggage enplaned, 1,107,525 were reported as mishandled, resulting in a rate of 5.10 mishandled bags per 1,000. Among these mishandled items, 3,317 were wheelchairs or other mobility vehicles.

Spirit Airlines, the last airline on the list, handled just over 37 million bags, with 185,610 of them being mishandled, translating to a mishandling rate of 4.93 per 1,000 bags enplaned.