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U.S. fines American Airlines for dozens of ground delays

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The U.S. government fined American Airlines $4.1 million for dozens of flights in which passengers were kept on board planes without a chance to depart during lengthy ground delays.

The U.S. Department of Transportation said Monday that it is the largest such fine against an airline since ground delay rules went into effect nearly a decade ago.

American Airlines must pay half of the fine within the next 30 days, while the department gave the airline a credit for the other half, just over $2 million, for compensation it paid to delayed passengers.

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According to the department, its investigation revealed that from 2018 to 2021, American kept 43 domestic flights stranded on the ground for at least three hours without giving passengers (5,821 total) the opportunity to deplane. There are exceptions where airlines can break the rules, including for safety reasons, but the department noted that none of those were factors in the flights it identified.

“This is the latest action in our ongoing effort to enforce the rights of airline passengers,” said Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who vowed to hold airlines accountable under consumer protection laws.

Most of the delays occurred at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, where American is the dominant carrier, and others occurred in San Antonio and Houston when flights bound for Dallas were diverted to their airports. Many were recorded during thunderstorms.

The airline took issue with delays at Washington’s Reagan National Airport during a January 2019 winter storm, but agreed to the settlement outline in the consent order.

By David Koenig – AP

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