JetBlue Airways is facing a $2 million fine after a federal government investigation revealed that it was "operating multiple chronically delayed flights."
This marks the first time the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has imposed a penalty on an airline for consistently delaying flights. The government lambasted this action, calling it a "prohibited unrealistic scheduling practice which can harm both passengers and fair competition across the airline industry."
DOT’s order requires JetBlue to stop chronic flight delays and pay a $2 million penalty, half of which will go directly to the U.S. Treasury. The other half will be used to compensate passengers that were impacted by the chronically delayed flights or any future flight disruptions of three hours or more caused by JetBlue within the next year, the DOT said in its Friday announcement.
The future compensation must be valued at a minimum of $75 for each harmed passenger, the DOT said.
"Today's action puts the entire airline industry on notice that we expect their flight schedules to reflect reality," U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement on Friday. "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."
Under the DOT rules, flights are considered chronically delayed if they are flown at least 10 times a month and arrive more than 30 minutes late, more than half of the time. Cancelations are included as delays within this calculation, the government said. Consistently delaying a flight for more than four consecutive months is considered unrealistic scheduling.
Following the DOT investigation, government officials discovered that JetBlue operated four chronically delayed flights at least 145 times between June 2022 through November 2023. Each of the four flights was delayed consistently for at least five straight months, according to the DOT. In total, there were 395 delays and cancellations across these four chronically delayed flights in total.
Additionally, JetBlue continued to operate three more chronically delayed flights between Florida, New York and Connecticut despite receiving warnings from the DOT, officials said.
The Bureau of Transportation Statistics estimated that the airline was responsible for over 70% of the disruptions for the four chronically delayed flights based off of data submitted to DOT by JetBlue.
Under DOT rules, airlines are given "adequate time to fix their schedule after a flight becomes chronically delayed to avoid illegal unrealistic scheduling." However, the DOT said "JetBlue failed to do so."
However, JetBlue told FOX Business in a statement that it has "invested tens of millions of dollars to reduce flight delays, particularly related to ongoing air traffic control challenges" in its largest markets in the Northeast and Florida over the past two years.
"Through these efforts, we have seen significant operational improvements in 2024 including better on-time performance during this year’s peak summer travel season," the New York City-based carrier said.
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The carrier continued saying that while it reached a settlement to resolve this matter regarding four flights in 2022 and 2023, the carrier believes "accountability for reliable air travel equally lies with the U.S. government, which operates our nation’s air traffic control system."
The carrier argued that the incoming administration needs to "prioritize modernizing outdated ATC technology" and address "chronic air traffic controller staffing shortages to reduce ATC delays that affect millions of air travelers each year."
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But JetBlue isn’t alone. The DOT stated it is currently investigating other airlines for "unrealistic flight schedules" as well.
The DOT considers unrealistic scheduling to be deceptive and anticompetitive practice as it denies travelers reliable scheduling information and "allows airlines to unfairly capture business from competitors by misleading consumers."
