The US transportation department has imposed a $2 million penalty on JetBlue Airways for persistent delays on its east coast routes. Half of the high quality could be distributed as compensation to affected passengers. This marks the primary occasion of an airline being fined for continual delays on particular routes, which the department attributed to JetBlue’s “unrealistic scheduling,” the company mentioned.
Transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg criticised the airline, stating, “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.”
JetBlue, nonetheless, shifted a part of the blame onto the federal government’s air visitors management system.
Spokesperson Derek Dombrowski mentioned the airline had invested “tens of millions of dollars to reduce flight delays” attributable to air visitors management challenges in key markets, together with the Northeast and Florida which led to improved on-time efficiency in 2024, particularly throughout peak summer time journey.
Dombrowski known as the incoming Trump administration to modernise outdated air visitors management programs and handle staffing shortages amongst controllers.
The department recognized continual delays on JetBlue flights between June 2022 and November 2023. Problematic routes included flights from New York’s JFK Airport to Raleigh-Durham, Fort Lauderdale, and Orlando, in addition to flights from Windsor Locks, Connecticut, to Fort Lauderdale.
Settlement
JetBlue has since agreed to a settlement over delays on 4 particular routes.
“While we’ve reached a settlement to resolve this matter regarding four (routes) 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,” Dombrowski revealed.
Chronic delays
Under the rules set by the transportation department, airways should not publish unrealistic schedules, guaranteeing departure and arrival occasions replicate operational realities. A flight is deemed chronically delayed if it operates no less than 10 occasions a month and arrives greater than half-hour late in over half of these cases.
