JetBlue Hit With Unprecedented Fine For Operating Unrealistic Flight Schedules That Resulted in ‘Chronic Delays’

JetBlue has become the first-ever US-based airline to be slapped with a massive fine for operating unrealistic flight schedules that resulted in chronic delays – a practice that the Department of Transportation (DOT) said on Friday was “unfair, deceptive, and anticompetitive.”

The New York-based carrier will have to pay $2 million after the DOT found it had operated at least four flight numbers that arrived at their destination at least 30 minutes late more than 50% of the time over a period of at least five months.

The DOT’s ability to fine airlines for operating ‘chronically delayed’ flights has existed for many years, and for some time, the DOT’s Office of Aviation Consumer Protection would send out warnings to airlines suspected of breaching the regulations.

In 2018, however, the OACP stopped sending out individual warnings, given that the legislation had been around for so long that airlines should reasonably be expected to know the rules and have procedures in place to comply with them.

In fact, the DOT gives airlines a grace period of two months to start making adjustments to their flight schedules should they discover that a flight is operating late more often than not. The hope is that by the end of month five, flight schedules will be more realistic, and flights will be operating more or less on time.

In mid-2022, however, the DOT became aware that JetBlue was operating a chronically delayed flight between New York JFK and Raleigh-Durham and warned the airline about this practice.

But just months later, JetBlue started operating two more chronically delayed flights between Fort Lauderdale and New York JFK and between Orlando and New York City. A third chronically delayed flight was also identified by DOT investigators between Fort Lauderdale and Windsor Locks.

More than two-thirds of the flight delays were the fault of JetBlue, although even if weather or other external issues were causing a flight to become chronically delayed, the DOT expects airlines to start adjusting their schedules.

In total, JetBlue sold tickets to passengers for 145 individual chronically delayed flights. Each violation can attract a maximum penalty of more than $42,000, which could have potentially led to a fine of nearly $6 million.

In mitigation, JetBlue said it had invested tens of millions of dollars over the last two years in an attempt to improve its systems and processes and that this had already resulted in ‘dramatic’ improvements in its operational performance over the summer of 2024.

As a result, the DOT decided to cap JetBlue’s fine at $2 million, with the embattled carrier ordered to pay half a million dollars within 60 days and a further half a million dollars within one year.

The remaining $1 million will go to passengers who found themselves on chronically delayed flights in the form of goodwill payments.

“Illegal chronic flight delays make flying unreliable for travelers,” commented outgoing Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “Today’s action puts the airline industry on notice that we expect their flight schedules to reflect reality.”

Buttigieg added: “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.”

The DOT says it is actively investigating other airlines for operating chronically delayed flights, although the department did not name and shame the carriers it was looking into.