For the first time ever, the Department of Transportation, led by Secretary Pete Buttigieg, fined an airline for operating chronically delayed flights.
JetBlue received a $2 million fine for this prohibited practice, which sets meaningless schedules for passengers and harms fair competition between airlines.
It’s illegal for an airline to promise “unrealistic schedules” that disrupt passengers’ travel, mislead them about the service they will receive, and take business from airline competitors with unfair and untrue promises of service.
But delayed flights are fairly normal. So why is this such a big deal?
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Understanding the Historic DOT Fine
While a single delayed flight isn’t necessarily a marker of illegal behavior, JetBlue fell into the “chronically delayed” category when they operated a route at least 10 times in one month, arriving more than 30 minutes late over half the time.
After investigation, the DOT found JetBlue to be operating not just one, but multiple chronically delayed flights for an extended period.
Even after warnings from the DOT, JetBlue operated four of these delayed routes at least 145 times between June 2022 and November 2023.
Airlines are aware when their flights are chronically delayed, so it’s not fair to travelers when airlines continue advertising flights that they know won’t have an on-time arrival.
This practice gives passengers the wrong impression about their travel itinerary and is deceptive about the service the passenger paid to receive.
Bad for business
Not only are chronically delayed flights, you know, deceptive, illegal, and unfair, but they’re also bad for the healthy competition that exists between airlines.
Why? Well, that competition is what brings lower airfare to consumers.
While JetBlue was operating these delayed routes, they were unfairly taking business away from competitors who might have been offering legitimate schedules to those same customers.
Now, don’t get me wrong — other airlines are under the same investigation from the DOT for the exact same problem. It’s not like there are “good guys” and “bad guys” here. But JetBlue got caught, and now they’re the first airline to pay up like this.
How Do the DOT’s Actions Impact Consumers?
Of the $2 million fine, half will go to compensating passengers affected by JetBlue’s delays.
That cool million will both reimburse passengers for delays that occurred already and compensate people on future JetBlue delayed flights within the next year.
So, if you’re on a significantly delayed JetBlue flight in the future, you may be owed a minimum of $75 in compensation!
This penalty imposed by the DOT sets a precedent for airline behavior moving forward.
According to U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, “Today's action puts the airline industry on notice that we expect their flight schedules to reflect reality. The department will enforce the law against airlines with chronic delays or unrealistic scheduling practices in order to protect healthy competition and ensure passengers are treated fairly.”
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It appears that an era of wrist-slapping and empty investigations into airlines may be coming to a close.
Along with landmark fines, consumer rights for air travel expanded dramatically under the Biden-Harris Administration.
For example, between 1996 and 2020, the DOT only penalized airlines about $70 million for violating consumer protections. Since 2020, the DOT has issued nearly $225 million in fines.
A new rule requiring automatic refunds has made it so passengers don't have to fight the airline for refunds they’re entitled to.
And the DOT’s new service dashboard at FlightRights.gov helps enforce the guarantees airlines have made to passengers regarding care in the case of delays and cancellations.
TL;DR: You’re Protected Against Delayed Flights
The nature of air traffic and air travel in general is sticky — scheduling is never guaranteed, and mechanical delays and weather conditions really do impact passengers every single day.
But it’s illegal for an airline to knowingly operate a consistently delayed flight.
Airlines are finally beginning to be held responsible for these illegal behaviors. When they’re held accountable, they change practices to make air travel for you more reliable.
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