The American airline JetBlue will be the first to have to pay fines for delays imposed by the Department of Transportation. The company will deliver one million dollars to the government entity, while the same amount will be used to compensate affected passengers.
The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) fined JetBlue Airways $2 million for operating four chronically delayed flights on domestic routes, the first time it has imposed such a fine on an airline for this scheduling practice. prohibited.
USDOT said Friday that as part of a consent agreement with the airline, JetBlue will pay a $1 million fine and the remainder will go toward compensating customers affected by its chronic delays or any future disruptions during the next year. anus.
As part of the agreement, JetBlue agreed to provide vouchers worth at least $75 to passengers for future flight cancellations or delays of three hours or more caused by the airline over the next year.
JetBlue, which did not immediately comment, told USDOT it does not admit liability but agreed to settle to avoid the expense and uncertainty of litigation.
The USDOT said that at various points in 2022 and 2023 JetBlue operated chronically delayed flights between New York and Raleigh-Durham, Fort Lauderdale and Orlando along with a flight between Fort Lauderdale and Windsor Locks, Connecticut.
“Regardless of the cause of the delay (carrier, weather, national airspace, security) for any specific flight, JetBlue had sufficient time to act to avoid chronic delays,” USDOT said.
The airline said it spent tens of millions of dollars to fix problems with air traffic control, especially in the northeastern corridor of the United States, to avoid as much as reasonably possible any chronic delays.
USDOT said there were 395 delays and cancellations on four chronically problematic flights in total, meaning U.S. flights are canceled or arrive more than 30 minutes late more than 50% of the time over the course of a month. USDOT estimates that JetBlue was responsible for more than 70% of the disruptions on these four routes.