The Transportation Department on Friday announced a $2 million penalty against JetBlue Airways for operating several East Coast flights that arrived years late in 2022 and 2023. Half of the money collected will go to affected passengers.
The penalty is the first time the DOT has fined an airline for chronic delays, which the federal agency defines as flights that depart at least 10 times a month and arrive more than half an hour late, more than 50 percent of the time .
“Unlawful chronic flight delays make flights unreliable for travelers. Today’s action puts the entire airline industry on notice that we expect their flight schedules to reflect reality,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement.
The DOT said it had warned JetBlue about persistent delays on its flights between Kennedy International Airport and Raleigh-Durham International Airport in North Carolina. He added that carriers have a “legal responsibility to avoid chronic delays” and that these months-long flights were unfair and misleading.
The four routes under review flew between JFK and Raleigh-Durham Airport. JFK and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in Florida. JFK and Orlando International Airport. and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Airport and Bradley International Airport in Connecticut. Between June 2022 and November 2023, flights were chronically delayed for five consecutive months. More than 70 percent of the cancellations for those flights were caused by the airline, according to Bureau of Transportation Statistics estimates.
“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 that passengers are treated fairly,” said Mr. Buttigieg.
Derek Dombrowski, a spokesman for JetBlue, said in a statement that the airline had invested tens of millions of dollars to reduce flight delays over the past two years and had seen “significant operational improvements.” Mr. Dombrowski also said air traffic control issues contributed to the airline’s operational challenges in the Northeast and Florida.
Last week, JetBlue made headlines when a flight from Turks and Caicos to Boston was delayed more than 24 hours, stranding passengers without accommodations.
From January to September of last year, about 71 percent of JetBlue’s flights were on time, according to Transportation Department data, and the carrier ranked last in on-time performance among the 10 largest domestic airlines (Frontier Airlines was in last place). During the same time period, more than 9 percent of JetBlue flights were airline-caused delays, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
