JetBlue must pay a $2 million penalty for operating “chronically delayed flights” on a handful of routes in 2022 and 2023, the Transportation Department announced Friday.
The action marks the first time the department has fined an airline for the offense, which it calls “a prohibited unrealistic scheduling practice.” A flight is considered chronically delayed if it arrives more than 30 minutes late over half the time during a month; it must operate at least 10 times in a month to get the designation. Cancellations also count in the total for chronic delays.
“Illegal chronic flight delays make flying unreliable for travelers. Today’s action puts the entire airline industry on notice that we expect their flight schedules to reflect reality,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement. “The department will enforce the law against airlines with chronic delays or other unrealistic scheduling practices in order to protect healthy competition in commercial aviation and ensure passengers are treated fairly.”
Under federal rules, airlines are not allowed to tout “unrealistic schedules” that do not reflect actual departure and arrival times.
The JetBlue flights in question operated between:
-John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City and Raleigh-Durham International, in North Carolina
-JFK and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International, in Florida
-JFK and Orlando International, in Florida
-Fort Lauderdale and Bradley International, in Connecticut
The flights that included Raleigh experienced the chronic delays between June and October 2022, while the others began in June 2023 and lasted until October or November. Summer months are generally the worst for extreme weather delays. The Transportation Department said data submitted by JetBlue showed that the airline was responsible for more than 70 percent of the disruptions for the four chronically delayed flights.
In all, passengers experienced 395 delays and cancellations on those flights, according to the federal agency.
JetBlue did not immediately respond to questions about the penalty. But in the consent order posted Friday, the airline said that it “has at all times strived to avoid scheduling or operating flights that are delayed, much less ‘chronically delayed.’”
The carrier said in the order that it has spent tens of millions of dollars to improve its processes and systems to “address issues with air traffic control,” specifically in the Northeast Corridor where it has a heavy presence, to prevent chronic delays. JetBlue pointed the finger at air-traffic control conditions as being a “root cause” of past chronic delays, the order says. The Federal Aviation Administration has dealt with staffing challenges for air traffic controllers, and a report last year warned that the agency needed to take action to address fatigue and stress among the critical workers.
“These past and ongoing efforts are reflected in a large and sustained improvement in JetBlue’s operations over the last two years since the flights at issue occurred, as demonstrated this past summer with dramatic improvement in operational performance,” the order says.
Data from the Department of Transportation shows that JetBlue ranked ninth out of 10 for on-time arrivals in June; sixth in July and last in August, with 60.7 percent of on-time arrivals that month.
According to an on-time performance review by aviation analytics firm Cirium, JetBlue ranked 7 of 10 for North American airlines for 2024, with a little more than 74 percent of flights arriving on time.
JetBlue did not admit liability for the chronically delayed flights but agreed to settle the matter with the Transportation Department “to avoid the expense and uncertainty of litigation,” the order said.
The airline agreed to pay half of the $2 million fine to the U.S. Treasury; the other half will be earmarked as “goodwill compensation” for passengers who were affected by past JetBlue cancellations or delays, or more disruptions that are caused by JetBlue within the next year. For future compensation, each passenger must receive at least $75. Jet Blue did not respond to questions about how it would compensate passengers in the future or whether past travelers have already received compensation.
Teresa Murray, consumer watchdog director for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group Education Fund, praised the announcement early Friday. In a statement, she called the penalty “the kind of wake-up call that’s a long time coming.”
“We applaud DOT’s efforts to hold more airlines accountable,” she said. “Everyone knows that airlines play all sorts of games with flight schedules, and there rarely are consequences when the airlines schedule flights that they know darn well won’t operate on time.”
Friday’s penalty follows a $50 million fine that the Transportation Department levied against American Airlines in October for violating laws meant to protect passengers in wheelchairs. That month, the department also penalized Lufthansa $4 million for discriminating against Jewish passengers. In late 2023, the department hit Southwest with a $140 million fine for its holiday meltdown a year earlier.
Buttigieg told The Washington Post last year that he thought the department had “slept on some of its legal authorities” in the past.
“When I saw how low the fines were for violations, I worried that it meant that there was no real reason for airlines to change their practices,” he said. “When you add a zero or two, it changes things.”
(c) 2025, The Washington Post · Hannah Sampson