JetBlue Faces Big Fine for 'Unrealistic Scheduling'

The Transportation Department has ordered JetBlue to pay a $2 million penalty, including $1 million to reimburse customers, following chronic flight delays triggered by "illegal unrealistic scheduling." Under department rules, routes are considered chronically delayed if they are flown at least 10 times per month and arrive more than 30 minutes late at least 50% of the time, reports Fox Business. JetBlue operated four routes that saw 395 delays and cancellations over at least five months between June 2022 through November 2023, according to the department, which also found that it operated three additional chronically delayed routes even after department warnings. Several of the flights involved New York's JFK Airport and Florida's Fort Lauderdale Airport, per USA Today.

Though weather can trigger delays, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics estimated JetBlue was responsible for over 70% of the disruptions for those four chronically delayed routes, per Fox. It's the first time the DOT has imposed a penalty on an airline for consistently delaying flights, a behavior it said "can harm both passengers and fair competition across the airline industry." The department noted airlines are given "adequate time to fix their schedule after a flight becomes chronically delayed to avoid illegal unrealistic scheduling" but that "JetBlue failed to do so." "Today's action puts the entire airline industry on notice that we expect their flight schedules to reflect reality," said Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

JetBlue was ordered to pay $1 million to the Treasury Department and $1 million to compensate passengers. "Customers will receive at least $75 if they experience any future JetBlue delays of three hours or more within the next year," reports USA Today. The airline said it works "very hard to operate our flights as scheduled" and has invested "tens of millions of dollars to reduce flight delays" in the past two years. It called on the incoming Trump administration "to prioritize modernizing outdated [air traffic control] technology and addressing chronic air traffic controller staffing shortages to reduce ATC delays." (More JetBlue stories.)