DALLAS – A first in the U.S., the Department of Transportation (DOT) announced on Friday a US$2 million penalty against JetBlue (B6) for operating "multiple chronically delayed flights." The DOT defines chronic flight delays as "a prohibited unrealistic scheduling practice which can harm both passengers and fair competition across the airline industry."

JetBlue must pay half of the penalty – $1 million in cash – directly to the U.S. Treasury. The other half will go toward compensation for those B6 customers affected by the airline’s chronic delays or "any future disruptions caused by JetBlue within the next year."

The DOT investigation unveiled that B6 operated four chronically delayed flights "at least 145 times between June 2022 through November 2023." Each flight was chronically delayed for five straight months in a row – or more.

Despite a DOT warning, the chronic delays on behalf of B6 continued to happen on flight between its New York JFK base and Raleigh-Durham, N.C., Fort Lauderdale and Orlando, Fla., and between Fort Lauderdale, Fla. and Windsor Locks, Conn., with the carrier being responsible for 70% of said disruptions.

US Airlines on Thin ice

The DOT release noted that it had ongoing investigations into other airlines for unrealistic flight schedules. In 2024, the US airlines with the most delays were:

Frontier Airlines (F9), which had the lowest on-time performance among major US carriers, with only 66.70% of flights arriving on time. The Denver, Colorado-based low-cost-carrier (LCC) consistently ranked at the bottom for punctuality throughout the year.

JetBlue was the second airline that struggled with delays in 2024, achieving an on-time arrival rate of just 70.10%. LCC Spirit Airlines (NK) had the third-lowest on-time performance among major US carriers, with 73.13% of flights arriving on schedule.

Further Comments from the DOT

“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.”

DOT rules prohibit airlines from promising unrealistic schedules that do not reflect actual flight departure and arrival times. "Unrealistic scheduling is an unfair, deceptive, and anticompetitive practice that disrupts passengers’ travel plans, denies them reliable scheduling information, and allows airlines to unfairly capture business from competitors by misleading consumers."

The DOT ruling adds, "Chronically delaying a flight for more than four consecutive months is one form of unrealistic scheduling. Under DOT rules, a flight is chronically delayed if it is flown at least 10 times a month and arrives more than 30 minutes late more than 50 percent of the time. Cancellations are included as delays within this calculation."

Read the full consent order here.

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