Are airlines being better or ignored?
Companies are paying fewer fines. Is it because regulators are more lenient or are airlines abiding by laws?
Airlines and travel agencies have been paying fewer fines for violating consumer protection rules in the last few years as flyer complaints have declined.
But critics fear the reduction in civil penalties signals an unwillingness by the Trump administration to crack down on rulebreakers in the industry.
In the first three years of the Trump administration, the U.S. Department of Transportation levied 42 civil penalties against airlines and travel agencies for violating consumer protection rules, compared with 65 fines imposed during the final three years of the Obama administration.
Such violations include failing to let stranded passengers off a delayed flight or failing to quickly return wheelchairs to passengers when a plane lands, among others.
The 65 penalties imposed in the last three years of the Obama administration add up to $11.5 million in fines, compared with $7.5 million in penalties assessed in the first three years of the Trump administration, according to federal records. The average penalty imposed during both three-year periods was roughly the same — about $178,000.
The fines are prompted either by complaints from passengers to the Department of Transportation or a review of airline records by regulators.
In an emailed statement, the Aviation Enforcement Office of the Department of Transportation said it has not changed its directive to issue penalties against airlines that violate federal regulators.
“The Aviation Enforcement Office pursues enforcement action when the facts merit such action, so the number of consent orders and amounts of civil penalties fluctuates from year to year,” the department said.
The department defended itself, saying the agency last year began to adopt several new consumer protection rules, including how passengers can travel with service animals, making lavatories in cabins more accessible and allowing airlines to pay passengers electronically after they are bumped from a booked seat.
It is possible that airlines have been fined less often in recent years because the nation’s carriers have had time to adjust to dozens of new consumer regulations adopted early in the Obama administration, said Seth Kaplan, an airline analyst and former managing partner of the trade publication Airline Weekly. Industry experts say the Obama administration adopted more than 30 new consumer protection regulations from 2009 to 2011.
“It could be attributed to operational improvements by airlines,” he said but added that it is also possible that the number of penalties simply fluctuate over time for other unknown reasons.
When asked to respond, Airlines for America, a trade group for the nation’s airlines, issued a statement saying, “U.S. airlines all meet or exceed Department of Transportation standards and remain committed to continuing to improve compliance with all DOT regulations.”
Meanwhile, the rate of passenger complaints filed against airlines with the Department of Transportation has been dropping steadily, declining 32% over the last three years.
But passenger rights advocates say the drop in penalties imposed against airlines reflects leniency by the Trump administration.
Paul Hudson, a founder of Flyersrights.org and a longtime member of the Federal Aviation Administration’s Rulemaking Advisory Committee, said he had been critical of regulators under Obama but feels that the regulators under Trump have been even more complaisant toward enforcing consumer rights regulations.
“I’m afraid we’ve gone from bad to worse,” he said.
Hudson said he filed a request in 2017 under the Freedom of Information Act for documents to see how often and why aviation regulators have declined to impose civil penalties against an airline that was accused of violating aviation rules.
He said the Department of Transportation has yet to reply to that request.