Frontier, five other airlines to refund $600m to passengers

Bloomberg

Six airlines paid back more than $600 million in refunds to passengers because of major delays or cancelled flights, the US Transportation Department announced as air travel has seen more disruption amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The department, which said its enforcement actions on refunds led to hundreds of thousands of flyers getting money back, is also issuing more than $7 million in fines because of “extreme delays in providing refunds,” with some more than 100 days. The Office of Aviation Consumer Protection (OACP) has now assessed the most civil penalties in a year in its history — and 2022 isn’t over yet.
Frontier in a statement said it issued “goodwill refunds” of nearly $100 million to customers, showing the company’s “commitment to treating our customers with fairness and flexibility.” It added it would pay an additional $1 million after getting a “goodwill refund credit.”
The delayed refunds for Air India mostly occurred during the pandemic when it was still publicly owned, the company said in a statement. Air India, which was privatised in January, said it implemented new systems to expedite refunds and has worked to clear its refund backlog with more than 250,000 cases processed.
Air travel picked up this year after pandemic restrictions were rolled back, and holiday travel is expected to be even busier. Airlines have struggled with the increased demand, and officials hope the threat of fines can keep them on schedule.
Almost 3% of flights were cancelled and about 21% delayed so far this year, and air travel complaints increased more than 320% from pre-pandemic levels in the most recent data, from August.
“We’re expecting this coming holiday season to be one of the busiest,” Buttigieg said. He said the revived demand for air travel led to operational issues this summer with “unacceptable levels of delays and cancellations.” The department will continue ratcheting up penalties until there is “less of this kind of behavior to begin with,” he said.
Blane Workie, assistant general counsel for the Office of Aviation Consumer Protection, said some airlines wouldn’t have provided these refunds without the Transportation Department’s pressure.
Last year, Air Canada agreed to pay $4.5 million to settle charges that it didn’t properly give refunds to travellers when it cancelled or altered flights during the pandemic.
The department has escalated its work on airline disruption as lawmakers and passengers have stepped up pressure.
After the surge in flight disruptions and complaints this summer, the department debuted a dashboard where passengers can check if airlines will provide meals, rebooking, or hotel rooms when flights are delayed three or more hours or cancelled because of issues in the airlines’ control. Buttigieg said the department is looking into other items to add to the dashboard.
Many of the recent flight delays have been caused by airlines, a Bloomberg analysis shows. The department has also proposed a rule to expand protections for passengers wanting refunds for cancelled flights. An advisory committee at the department will hold a virtual meeting next month about a proposal on airline ticket refunds.
Some want the department to do even more. States pushed for legislation earlier this year to give authority to state attorneys general to enforce consumer protection laws over the airline industry, instead of the Transportation Department.
Democratic lawmakers introduced legislation (S. 4665, H.R. 8605) in both chambers that would provide consumers an enforceable right to a full cash refund for flight and ticket cancellations. Lawmakers are likely to weigh solutions to disrupted flights as they work to reauthorise the Federal Aviation Administration by September 2023.