United Airlines was recently fined a significant amount by the United States Department of Transportation (DOT), for tarmac delays.
United Airlines Fined for 25 Excessive Tarmac Delays
United Airlines agreed to pay $1.9 million civil penalties for not adhering to the DOT's policy regarding tarmac delays. In particular, airlines must develop plans that allow passengers to choose to deplane if there are prolonged delays.
A United Airlines investigation revealed that 25 United Airlines flights had tarmac delays that were overly long between 2015 and 2019. This affected a total number of 3,218 passengers. These flights were distributed as follows:
14 days were void of any flight.
Three days had two flights on each day, in violation of the rules
Five flights were flown in violation of the rules on a single day
Most of these cases involve flights that were diverted from their original airport because of severe weather. Some of these flights are grouped together.
The $1.9 million civil penalty
You must pay $950,000 within 30 days
United shall receive $750,000 in compensation for passengers. The cash refunds should be 100%, 80%, or two cents per miles for mileage tickets, and the travel credits or vouchers should be 80%.
United will receive $200,000 to help develop and implement a diversion control tool to improve its overall awareness of systemwide diversions.
United violated the DOT delay rules for 25 flights
United Airlines' thoughts
United Airlines noted that the investigation covered five years and that only 25 of almost eight million flights were found to have violated the DOTs rules.
United is willing to settle with the DOT. However, United does not agree with the DOT's description of flights. United does not believe there is a separate violation for every passenger, but United believes that penalties should be applied per flight or per day. United agreed to pay the penalty in order to settle this matter.
Both the DOT as well as United have valid points.
Because we saw more frequent delays on the tarmac before they were implemented, it was not possible to deplane.
However, United's 25 violations over five years and eight millions flights are not indicative of a systemic problem.
These divertions can be very complex because diversion airports don't have enough space to hold passengers. Crew could also be timed out if the door opens. In this case, the flight could be canceled, leaving passengers stuck somewhere else.
However, rules are rules and it is subjective (and slippery slope) to decide which flights are worth a fine or not.
Most excessive tarmac delays involve flight diversions
Bottom line
United Airlines agreed to pay $1.9 million in fines for 25 excessive delays on tarmac over five years. These violations mostly involved flight diverts due to bad weather. A plane could be stuck on the ground for extended periods of time without access to gates.
Although I don't think that this penalty indicates any major problems at United in managing delays, I believe it will make United work harder to prevent this from happening again.
What do you think of the DOT's decision to find United over tarmac delays
