JetBlue has agreed to pay a $2 million penalty after federal regulators charged the U.S. service with working a number of chronically delayed flight routes.
The penalty is the primary time the U.S. Department of Transportation has fined an airline for partaking in unrealistic scheduling practices that it says can hurt each passengers and truthful competitors throughout the airline trade.
Half the penalty will go towards compensating JetBlue prospects affected by the airline’s continual delays or any future disruptions brought on by JetBlue inside the subsequent yr — with a minimal of $75 for every harmed passenger.
“Illegal continual flight delays make flying unreliable for vacationers. Today’s motion places the airline trade on discover that we anticipate their flight schedules to mirror actuality,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg mentioned in an announcement. “The division will implement the legislation towards airways with continual delays or unrealistic scheduling practices as a way to shield wholesome competitors and guarantee passengers are handled pretty.”
The division mentioned it has ongoing investigations into different airways for unrealistic flight schedules.
JetBlue had the seventh-worst on-time price amongst North American carriers final yr, trailing solely Frontier Airlines, Air Canada and the Canadian service WestJet, in response to the International Air Transport Association.
The transportation division’s investigation discovered JetBlue operated 4 chronically delayed routes, with the airline chargeable for round 80% of the disruptions.
In an announcement, JetBlue mentioned it had invested tens of tens of millions of {dollars} to cut back flight delays that stemmed partly from ongoing air site visitors management challenges in its largest markets within the Northeast and Florida that it mentioned had been out of its management.
“While we’ve reached a settlement to resolve this matter concerning 4 flights in 2022 and 2023, we imagine accountability for dependable air journey equally lies with the U.S. authorities, which operates our nation’s air site visitors management system,” it mentioned. “We imagine the U.S. ought to have the most secure, most effective, and superior air site visitors management system on this planet, and we urge the incoming administration to prioritize modernizing outdated ATC expertise and addressing continual air site visitors controller staffing shortages to cut back ATC delays that have an effect on tens of millions of air vacationers annually.”
Last yr, a federal decide blocked a proposed merger between JetBlue and Spirit Airlines, saying it might harm shoppers. In 2023, one other federal decide dominated JetBlue and American Airlines needed to finish a partnership within the Northeast that was additionally deemed anticompetitive.
Over the previous 5 years, JetBlue’s inventory value has misplaced roughly half its worth.