President Joe Biden and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg will introduce a proposal Monday that requires airlines to compensate passengers for major flight delays and cancellations.
The proposed rule would only apply to cancellations and delays under the control of airlines and would require airlines to provide refunds and compensation to passengers, as well as meals, lodging and rebooking for passengers stranded by delays.
The administration is also willing to demand “timely customer service” when airlines are faced with widespread cancellations, a proposition clearly aimed at incidents like Southwest Airlines’ now-infamous holiday season, when stranded customers complained about not being able to get information. basic.
The proposal is the latest step Buttigieg and the administration have taken to crack down on what many progressives see as an overly concentrated airline industry prone to consumer abuse.
“When an airline causes a flight to be canceled or delayed, passengers should not pay the bill,” Buttigieg said in a statement announcing the proposal. “This rule, for the first time in US history, would propose requiring airlines to compensate passengers and cover expenses such as meals, hotels, and rebooking in cases where the airline caused a cancellation or a significant delay.
progressives have previously argued Buttigieg hasn’t done enough to fight the airlines, which have a fearsome lobbying operation in DC, even as the airlines’ trade group has begun to push back against Buttigieg’s criticism.
Biden and Buttigieg will make a joint appearance at the White House on Monday afternoon to introduce the proposal.
Similar regulations requiring compensation for delays already exist in Canada and the European Union, where some evidence suggests they have improved airline on-time performance. A key part of the development of the rule is likely to be defining when a cancellation or delay is within the control of the airlines.
The administration is also adding information about whether an airline offers compensation for delayed or canceled flights to a dashboard at FlightRights.gov, which the administration has used to name and shame airlines into offering more consumer protections.
After Biden asked for a new law banning airlines from charging extra for parents and children to sit next to each other during his State of the Union address in February, three airlines policies adopted abandoning such charges.
Even if Congress doesn’t pass such a law, the Department of Transportation is working to finalize a proposal to eliminate the fees. The DOT has also proposed rules that require airlines to show fees for checked bags or for changing or canceling your flight in advance and another rule that requires airlines to refund passengers if services they paid for, like WiFi access, don’t work. .
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