The Department of Transportation has gotten JetBlue to agree to a $2 million fine over chronically delayed flights. However they won’t actually pay $2 million, they’ll pay just $1 million. The rest won’t even go to customers on the flights they’re being fined for. Instead, they promise to offer $75 travel vouchers for future delays of 3 hours or more (and to be useful, you need to buy a new ticket from JetBlue!).
The real win here for DOT is getting JetBlue to agree to delay compensation, because that’s been something the Biden administration was unable to advance over the past four years (and is probably illegal to order as a regulation, with Congressional action). They want an EU261-style rule and haven’t gotten it, but this is something.
What’s strange though, as Enilria points out, is that DOT is fining JetBlue for delayed flights to, from or through New York airspace where the government’s own air traffic control has been unable to properly staff and as a result has contributed significantly to delays.
- DOT is complaining about “four chronically delayed flights at least 145 times between June 2022 through November 2023” not the entirety of JetBlue’s operation which underperforms competitors. The airline operates around 1,000 daily flights.
- They argue that operating an ‘unrealistic schedule’ is deceptive and therefore illegal, but it’s unrealistic in quite some measure because of FAA air traffic control failures. The government isn’t fining itself. And FAA and DOT have continually promised fixes. The schedules were unrealistic because JetBlue believed the government.
JetBlue is in the process of overhauling its business. It’s doing this because the airline hasn’t been making money. They do know they need improved reliability for customers to choose them, and especially if they want customers to do so at a premium price. $1 – 2 million is immaterial in this calculation, and customers have been way out ahead of the government on this.
Ironically, JetBlue is being forced to write a check for its failures, even where it shares blame, while airlines are lobbying to get more money to the FAA as a result of its failures. Currently there’s very little push to address FAA’s chronic failures in procurement, IT project management, and leadership throughout the org chart.
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