According to the U.S. Department of Transportation in 2016, how many airline customers were involuntarily bumped from flights?

According to data from the Department of Transportation (DOT), about 434,025 passengers were denied boarding voluntarily or involuntarily during 2016 because the airlines overbooked seating (sold more tickets than there were seats). A total of 40,629 passengers were denied boarding involuntarily on domestic flights in 2016, slightly down from the 43,704 passengers who were bumped against their will in 2015.

DOT says that overbooking is not illegal. Most airlines overbook their scheduled flights to compensate for “no-shows.” So when an over sale occurs, DOT requires airlines to ask willing passengers to give up their seats in exchange for express compensation. Those bumped involuntarily are mostly entitled to some amount of cash compensation. DOT lays out specific rules to cover the situations where passengers are bumped.

By checking with DOT for 2016, we see which airlines bumped passengers the most. Southwest, the biggest domestic carrier in the U.S. had the most involuntary bumps with 14,979. Next, American Airlines had 8,312 bumped. Then the following airlines were: United Airlines (3765 passengers), Express Jet (3182), JetBlue (3176), SkyWest (2935), Delta Air (1238), Spirit Air (1117), Alaska Air (931), Frontier (851) Virgin America (94) and Hawaiian Airlines with the lowest number at 49 passengers bumped.

Delta was most likely to bump 10 out of every 10,000; United was second. JetBlue was the least likely to bump customers.