The U.S. Department of Transportation on Friday announced a $2 million penalty against JetBlue Airways Corp. JBLU for operating multiple chronically delayed flights.
The Details: The DOT action against JetBlue marks the first time an airline has been fined for chronic flight delays which the agency defines as a flight that is "flown at least 10 times a month and arrives more than 30 minutes late more than 50 percent of the time."
The DOT's investigation found JetBlue operated four chronically delayed flights at least 145 times between June 2022 through November 2023 with each flight chronically delayed for five months in a row. Furthermore, the DOT found JetBlue was responsible for more than 70% of the disruptions to the chronically delayed flights.
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"Illegal chronic flight delays make flying unreliable for travelers. Today’s action puts the airline industry on notice that we expect their flight schedules to reflect reality," said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
"The department will enforce the law against airlines with chronic delays or unrealistic scheduling practices in order to protect healthy competition and ensure passengers are treated fairly," Buttigieg added.
JetBlue released a statement urging the incoming Trump administration to address the outdated air traffic control technology and staffing shortages.
"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," JetBlue said in its statement.
What Else: The DOT said it has additional ongoing investigations into other airlines for "unrealistic flight schedules," though it did not mention which airlines are under investigation.
Aviation analytics firm Cirium released its annual report of the most on-time airlines on Thursday. Delta Air Lines, Inc. DAL was the best-performing U.S. carrier with an on-time rate 83%, ranking the airline as third in the world.
United Airlines Holdings, Inc. UAL, the only other U.S.-based airline to rank in the top 10, came in tenth with an on-time rate of 80.93%.
Alaska Air Group, Inc. ALK was the third-best U.S. carrier with an on-time rate of 79.25%.
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