The Transportation Division mentioned Friday it should hit JetBlue Airways with a $2 million penalty for chronically late flights alongside the East Coast, and half the cash will go to passengers who had been delayed.
The company mentioned it is the primary time it has fined an airline for continual delays on particular routes, which it blamed on “unrealistic scheduling” by JetBlue.
“Unlawful continual flight delays make flying unreliable for vacationers. As we speak’s motion places the whole airline trade on discover that we count on their flight schedules to mirror actuality,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg mentioned. His division has led the Biden administration in criticizing airways for poor service and a rise in charges on vacationers.
JetBlue mentioned the federal government, which operates the air visitors management system, shares the blame for late flights.
Airline spokesperson Derek Dombrowski mentioned JetBlue has invested “tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} to scale back flight delays, notably associated to ongoing air visitors management challenges in our largest markets within the Northeast and Florida,” leading to higher on-time efficiency in 2024, together with in the course of the peak summer season journey season.
“Whereas we have reached a settlement to resolve this matter concerning 4 (routes) in 2022 and 2023, we consider accountability for dependable air journey equally lies with the U.S. authorities, which operates our nation’s air visitors management system,” Dombrowski mentioned. He mentioned the incoming Trump administration ought to prioritize modernizing “outdated” air visitors management expertise and understaffing of controllers, who’re employed by the Federal Aviation Administration.
Transportation Division rules prohibit airways from publishing schedules that do not mirror actual departure and arrival instances. The company defines a flight as chronically delayed if it runs no less than 10 instances a month and arrives greater than half-hour late greater than half the time.
The division cited JetBlue flights between June 2022 and November 2023. It mentioned it warned JetBlue about frequent delays on flights between New York’s John F. Kennedy Worldwide Airport and Raleigh-Durham Worldwide Airport in North Carolina. Frequent delays additionally occurred on flights between JFK and Fort Lauderdale and Orlando, Florida, and between Windsor Locks, Connecticut and Fort Lauderdale.
