The line graph compares the number of complaints made to an airline’s complaint department by three different means, personal delivery, telephone, and fax or email, during the first half of 2009.
Overall, the airline received an increasing number of spoken communications from airline passengers, as compared to a declining preference for written ones over the time frame shown.
Face-to-face complaints showed the most dramatic increase over the six months. In January, complaining in person was the least popular way to criticize the airline with only 400 complaints recorded. By mid-March, this figure had surpassed other contact methods to finally reach over 1900 complaints by June, an almost fivefold increase. By the same token, telephone complaints increased, though less dramatically. In January, there were 900 complaints registered, which dipped and fluctuated slightly for the first few months, before increasing significantly after April to 1600 two months later.
Complaints that were written showed an inverse trend. In January, the airline was contacted almost 800 times by email or fax, which then remained relatively unchanged for the first three months before halving to just under 400 by the middle of the year.