DOT Issues American Airlines Largest Fine on Record for Tarmac Delays

An American Airlines plane pushes back from the gate at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport terminal. Smiley N. Pool/The Dallas Morning News/TNS

American Airlines was hit with the largest fine in U.S. Department of Transportation history for trapping passengers onboard for hours-long flight delays.

The department announced that it had fined American Airlines $4.1 million on Aug. 28 for more than 43 instances in which passengers were stuck on the tarmac longer than required without giving them the opportunity to disembark.

The DOT called it “the largest civil penalty that the department has ever assessed,” according to a press statement.

About 5,821 passengers were impacted by the lengthy flight delays on multiple domestic flights between 2018 and 2021.

According to American, the airline and its regional partners have flown some 976,000 flights during the first two quarters of the year,

DOT Issues Largest Fine in Its History

The DOT issued the penalty as part of a consent order in which American Airlines allegedly breached its rule on tarmac delays by keeping passengers on board for over three hours.

The department’s existing rules covering extended ground delays have been in effect for over a decade.

More than $2 million out of the $4.1 million fine has already been distributed to passengers by American in compensation for those incidents, resulting in a credit for half of the fine, reported the DOT.

The airline would pay then pay the remaining $2.05 million to the government over the next 30 days.

The federal government hopes that the massive fine will deter airlines to “cease and desist from violating the law” from now on.

Federal regulations set the maximum amount of time—three hours for domestic flights and four hours for international flights—that passengers can be held without the opportunity to disembark prior to takeoff or after landing,

Airlines are also required to provide passengers with food and water if stuck on board within two hours of the start of the delay, according to the consent order.

The department accused American of not following that rule on one of the flights.

In addition, none of the exceptions in which airlines were allowed to bend the rules, such as for safety and security reasons, were factors in any of the flights identified by the DOT.

Most of the delays occurred at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, one of the largest transit hubs in the United States and the location of the airline’s headquarters.

In the one of the longest incidents, passengers sat aboard a plane at a Texas airport in August 2020 for six hours and three minutes.

The 105-passenger flight had landed after being diverted from the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport due to severe weather.

The DOT alleged that “American lacked sufficient resources to appropriately handle several of these flights once they landed.”

Secretary Buttigieg Calls for More Regulations to Protect Passengers

“This is the latest action in our continued drive to enforce the rights of airline passengers,” said Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

“Whether the issue is extreme tarmac delays or problems getting refunds, DOT will continue to protect consumers and hold airlines accountable.”

Earlier this year, the DOT created an online dashboard to inform travelers of the services they are entitled to if flights are canceled or significantly delayed for reasons within an airline’s control.

The department also announced plans to propose regulations that would require airlines to compensate passengers for travel disruptions that strand them at airports.

Secretary Buttigieg submitted an additional proposal to Congress a legislative proposal that require airlines to provide fee-free family seating.

The DOT will further propose that airlines and travel search websites disclose, up front, any surprise fees for passengers as well as entitling them to flight credits or vouchers if a flight to, from, or within the United States is cancelled or significantly changed.

American Airlines Protests Government Decision

American Airlines told Fox Business that it “respectfully disagrees that certain of these tarmac delays warrant enforcement action under the extreme circumstances presented.”

The airline was previously fined $1 million by the DOT after delays at Reagan Washington National Airport during a winter storm in January 2019.

United Airlines was fined $1.9 million in 2021 for violating the same federal statutes by allowing long delays on the tarmac for over 25 flights between December 2015 and February 2021, which the airline also primarily blamed on severe weather.

“American Airlines always strives to deliver a positive travel experience to our customers and takes very seriously our responsibility to comply with all Department of Transportation requirements,” a spokesperson told The Epoch Times in a statement.

“We have since apologized to the impacted customers and regret any inconvenience caused.”

The airline blamed all of the delays on “exceptional weather events,” and said that the flights “represent a very small number of the 7.7 million flights during this time period.”

It stated that out of “the approximately 7.7 million flights operated by American and its regional partners, those included in this order represent less than 0.001 percent of the during the period of 2018 to 2021.”

The airline added that it has invested in new technology, such as the deployment of the Hub Efficiency Analytics Tool, to better handle flights in severe weather and avoid lengthy flight delays.

American said that it “built new smart gating technology that reduces taxiway congestion and the time aircraft spend waiting for available gates.”

“These efforts are already providing significant benefits to our customers and team members, and we continue to look for innovative ways to further improve,” continued the spokesperson.