The U.S. Department of Transportation has fined JetBlue $2 million for operating “multiple chronically delayed flights” between June 2022 and November 2023, the agency announced Friday. This is the primary time the DOT has penalized an airline for such delays.
DOT defines a “chronically delayed flight” as a flight that operates no less than 10 times per 30 days and arrives greater than half-hour late, including canceled flights, greater than 50 percent of the time within the month.
Four JetBlue routes flagged by the DOT as chronically late include flights between John Paul II International Airport. John F. Kennedy in New York and Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, and flights between Fort Lauderdale and JFK in Orlando, Florida and Windsor Locks, Connecticut.
According to the agency’s Jan. 3 order, JetBlue agreed to settle with the DOT “to avoid the costs and uncertainty of litigation.”
JetBlue in a press release said it has “invested tens of millions of dollars to reduce flight delays” and improve on-time performance, but criticized what it called “continued air traffic control challenges in our largest markets in the Northeast and Florida.”
“We urge the new administration to prioritize modernizing outdated ATC technology and addressing chronic air traffic controller staffing shortages to reduce ATC delays that affect millions of air travelers each year,” the carrier said.
Under the order, of the $2 million penalty, $500,000 is to be owed to the U.S. Treasury inside 60 days of the order’s issuance, and one other $500,000 is to be owed inside one 12 months of the primary payment.
The remaining $1 million might be paid to JetBlue “for costs that the carrier has incurred or will incur in good faith for compensation already paid to affected passengers during the period covered by this investigation,” based on the order, and “compensation for goodwill payable within one year” of the date of this order to passengers affected by future controllable cancellations or delays of three hours or more, provided that the value of any vouchers payable to passengers is $75 or more.”
The Bureau of Transportation Statistics estimates that the carrier was responsible for about 80 percent of the disruptions for four chronically delayed flights, according to the DOT. The agency also noted that its rules provide airlines with “sufficient time” to adjust flight schedules after determining that a flight is chronically delayed “to avoid illegal, unrealistic flight schedules,” the agency said. “JetBlue didn’t do it.”
However, the carrier noted in the consent order that it “recently learned that DOT has eliminated its prior practice of providing air carriers with written warnings of months of chronically delayed flights and, in the long run, JetBlue will now not rely on DOT’s timely receipt of such warnings.”
DOT noted that it’s also investigating other airlines for unrealistic flight schedules.
