Airlines Could Be Fined for Delayed Flights

Filed in archive Aviation Travel on October 24, 2007

Everyone say it with me, Halleuhah! This week, the Transportation Department reported that airlines that operate chronically delayed flights (pretty much any flight out of Chicago O'Hare and New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport) could face stiff fines. The announcement came as the U.S. government closed a six-month investigation.

Finally! After millions of people have been delayed, it's nice to know the airlines could be held accountable. I understand all of the delays are the airlines fault, but, let's face it, some are.

The Transportation Department in May began investigating flights that are at least 15 minutes late more than 70 percent of the time, and so far has identified 26 that meet those criteria, an agency spokesman said Tuesday.

If any of those 26 flights also were delayed in the most recent quarter being reviewed, the responsible airlines will face "significant financial penalties," agency spokesman Brian Turmail said. Results of the investigation are expected within weeks.

The commercial airlines trade group criticized the government's possible penalties.

"We're disappointed that they're taking this course of action given the effort by industry to significantly reduce delays," said David Castelveter, spokesman for the Air Transport Association.

"No one has greater incentive to move its flights on-time than the airlines," Castelveter said, because they cost the industry $6 billion per year and it means "we fail our customers." But the answer is not eliminating flights from the chronically delayed list, which are there based on customer demand, he added.

The Federal Aviation Administration handles roughly 85,000 flights per day, a number predicted to reach more than 111,000 daily flights by 2020.

But delays this summer reached record levels. The Transportation Department earlier this month said more than 25 percent of domestic flights arrived late between January and August - easily the industry's worst performance since comparable data began being collected in 1995.