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The Department of Transportation (DOT) hit JetBlue with a first-of-its-kind fine for chronic flight delays caused by unrealistic scheduling. The $2 million penalty makes JetBlue the only carrier to date to be be fined for delays.
The DOT found that JetBlue’s flights consistently arrived more than 30 minutes late over several consecutive months. JetBlue operated four routes that were delayed at least 145 times between June 2022 and November 2023. These routes included: New York John F Kennedy International Airport (JFK) to/from Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU) as well as Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL) to/from Orlando International Airport (MCO), Bradley International Airport (BDL), and New York John F Kennedy International Airport (JFK). The Bureau of Transportation Statistics estimates that JetBlue was responsible for over 70% of the disruptions for the four chronically delayed routes. Regardless of the cause of the disruptions, DOT rules allow airlines time to fix their schedules after a flight becomes chronically delayed to avoid illegal unrealistic scheduling. With these four routes, JetBlue failed to do so.
The fine includes $1 million that will be paid to the US Treasury and $1 million that will be used to compensate passengers. They will receive $75 or more if they experience future delays of three hours or more within the next year.
Transportation Secretary, Pete Buttigieg, said in a statement:
Illegal chronic flight delays make flying unreliable for travelers. Today’s action puts the entire 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 other unrealistic scheduling practices in order to protect healthy competition in commercial aviation and ensure passengers are treated fairly.”
JetBlue released its own statement. It reads:
We appreciate how important it is to our customers to arrive to their destinations on-time and work very hard to operate our flights as scheduled. While we’ve reached a settlement to resolve this matter regarding four flights in 2022 and 2023, we believe accountability for reliable air travel equally lies with the US government, which operates our nation’s air traffic control system. We believe the US should have the safest, most efficient, and advanced air traffic control system in the world, and we urge the incoming administration to prioritize modernizing outdated ATC technology and addressing chronic air traffic controller staffing shortages to reduce ATC delays that affect millions of air travelers each year.”
The DOT is currently investigating other airlines for similar scheduling practices and more fines may be levied in the future.
Anthony’s Take: It’s good to see the government stepping in and holding airlines accountable. We’ll see if other airlines are hit with the same fines and how this policy is enforced with an administration change coming this month.
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1 comment
I suspect nothing will happen with the new administration in regard to this practice.