Airlines have been forced to pay out more than $600 million in refunds to travelers amid the ravages of the pandemic

CNN
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Airlines have paid more than $600 million in refunds to hundreds of thousands of passengers due to canceled or changed flights since the start of the airline. COVID-19 pandemicThe Department of Transportation announced on Monday.

At the same time, federal regulators are cracking down on half a dozen airlines they say are skirting the rules, which determine when refunds are issued. All of this comes as airlines struggle to keep up with rapidly rising demand for air travel.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a phone call with reporters that the department issued $7.25 million in fines against the six airlines for “extreme delays in providing these refunds to passengers.”

That brings the total estimated fines for 2022 to $8.1 million — a record for civil penalties for the administration’s Consumer Protection Program.

Ultra-low-cost Frontier Airlines is the only US carrier facing refund-related fines. Foreign airlines facing the majority of fines: Air India, TAP Portugal, Aeromexico, El Al and Avianca.

“[T]The department expects that when Americans buy a ticket on an airline, we expect to get to our destination safely and affordably. And our job at DOT is to hold airlines accountable for these expectations, many of which are a matter of law and regulation,” Buttigieg said.

Last month, the Department of Transportation said of the 7,243 consumer complaints it received about airlines in August, nearly one in five Refunds involved.

The process for getting airlines to issue refunds varied by airline, according to Blane Workie, assistant general counsel for the Department of Transportation in the Office of Aviation Consumer Protection, who spoke about the call with Buttigieg.

For example, Frontier changed its definition of a “significant change in schedule” in March 2020.

“In essence, they were retroactively applying a stricter rule to consumers, and I can certainly say that Frontier would not have provided these refunds to tens of thousands of passengers if the Department of Transportation had not been involved,” she said.

As part of this process, the Department of Transportation has required Frontier to provide the required refunds or inform all of these passengers how to obtain refunds in the event they need to fill out forms.

Other airlines have severe delays in providing refunds, Workey said.

Worky noted that most of the refund complaints the department has received have been against foreign airlines.

Asked if this would act as a deterrent to airlines, Buttigieg said, “The overall goal is to make sure passengers get their money back.”

“No DOT enforcement action should be taken to get airlines to pay refunds that they have to pay. And so I asked the team to do an exercise to make sure the fines are calculated to deter that in the future and save passengers a lot of time and a lot everyone,” he said.

Buttigieg later noted that management will continue to “escalate the penalty side” until they see less of this type of behavior.

According to Workie, all refunds have been made or consumers must be informed of the refund process.

However, the fines will be collected after the Ministry of Transport orders are issued on Monday.

More enforcement action and investigations are underway, according to Buttigieg, who said there “may be more news coming in the form of fines.”

However, Workey said there are no pending refund investigations against US airlines.

Buttigieg also referred to the upcoming holiday travel season, saying it is expected to be “among the busiest” since 2019, in terms of busy travel days.

He described other actions the department has taken, including a new airline consumer service dashboard to help people know what they’re up to when a flight is canceled or delayed due to an issue with the airline.