JetBlue fined $2 million by US DOT for operating ‘chronically delayed flights’

The US Department of Transportation (DOT) announced on January 3, that JetBlue Airways is to be fined $2 million for continued flight delays across its network. The move comes despite the carrier being recently voted as one of the ‘Best Airlines in 2024’ as revealed by a survey conducted by US travel website WalletHub. According to the DOT, JetBlue was solely responsible for 70% of its flights that were chronically delayed during the scrutinized period, said the DOT, as it imposed the fine to stamp out the practice of unrealistic scheduling in the US airline industry.    

Having scrutinized JetBlue’s operations since 2022, the DOT found that certain JetBlue flights were subjected to repeated and prolonged delays. Certain US East Coast routes were delayed a total of 395 times between June 2022 and November 2023 which included routes from New York-JFK (JFK) to Raleigh-Durham (RDU),  Fort Lauderdale (FLL), and Orlando (MCO), plus Fort Lauderdale to Bradley International Airport (BDL) in Windsor Locks, Connecticut.

According to the DOT, chronically delaying a flight for more than four consecutive months is “one form of unrealistic scheduling.” Specifically, if a flight is flown at least 10 times in a month and arrives more than 30 minutes late more than 50 percent of the time, the flight is considered to be chronically delayed says the DOT. Flights that are classed as chronically delayed are those that suffer a poor on-time performance month after month with no meaningful reason for the delays.

Coby Wayne / ShutterstockThe DOT maintains that chronically delayed flights are caused by the airlines themselves, knowing that the flights being put on sale have no chance of being on time due to the stated departure time and flight times being set too unrealistically. US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said that the fine imposed on JetBlue should serve as notice to all operating within the US airline industry and that ongoing scrutiny of punctuality is key to the operation of safe and reliable airline services.

“Illegal chronic flight delays make flying unreliable for travelers,” said Buttigieg. “Today’s action puts the airline industry on notice that we expect their flight schedules to reflect reality. The department will enforce the law against airlines with chronic delays or unrealistic scheduling practices to protect healthy competition and ensure passengers are treated fairly.”

However, despite the DOT findings, according to a JetBlue spokesperson, while a “settlement was reached”, the airline does not believe it alone was at fault, placing blame on the US government as well.

“While we’ve reached a settlement to resolve this matter regarding four flights in 2022 and 2023, we believe accountability for reliable air travel equally lies with the U.S. government, which operates our nation’s air traffic control system,” said JetBlue’s Derek Dombrowski.

Roman Tiraspolsky / ShutterstockJetBlue claims to have spent “tens of millions of dollars to reduce flight delays” over the last couple of years. However, it would seem that this has not been enough to eradicate chronically delayed flights that have continued to blight the travel plans of thousands of JetBlue passengers over the past three years.  

Passenger compensation fund

According to the DOT, JetBlue was offered the opportunity to fix the flights where they were liable for causing the chronic delays, and it was only after the airline failed to do so that the fine was imposed. However, as a form of reparation, one condition attached to the fine is that JetBlue must pay a portion of those funds back to passengers in the form of delay compensation.

Of the $2 million that JetBlue was fined, half of the total amount ($1 million) will go directly to the US Treasury, while the remaining half will be distributed to the passengers who were affected by the chronic delays seen in 2022 and 2023. Additionally, passengers who are affected by flights that fall into the category of being chronically delayed in the future will also be eligible for compensation.

Ronen Fefer / ShutterstockAlthough the settlement figure for those who were delayed in 2022 and 2023 has not been disclosed, those passengers who experience chronic delays on JetBlue in the future will be entitled to a “minimum of $75” for each flight that is canceled or delayed for at least three hours.

It is anticipated that in the coming months, other US airlines are also likely to face fines for chronically delayed flights. This is solely down to those airlines knowingly offering what the DOT calls “unrealistic schedules” that never had any chance of operating on time.

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