Senators press Buttigieg to increase airline passenger compensation for canceled and delayed flights

Three Democratic senators urged the Department of Transportation on Wednesday to increase airline passengers’ compensation for canceled and delayed flights when the airline is at fault. The pressure campaign comes on the eve of Thanksgiving, as airlines prepare for near pre-pandemic levels of travel. In a letter to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Democratic Sens. Maria Cantwell of Washington, Edward Markey of Massachusetts and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut wrote the airlines should be responsible for passengers’ “secondary costs” when they cancel or “significantly” delay a flight. “The refunds rule should require airlines to cover secondary costs – such as hotel rooms, food and drink, and transportation to-and-from the airport – when an airline, due to a problem within its control, cancels or significantly delays a flight,” wrote the senators. Politico first reported the senators’ letter. Airlines have paid more than $600m in refunds to hundreds of thousands of passengers for canceled or changed flights since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the Department of Transportation. But federal regulators say that some airlines have skirted the rules. The department has issued $7.25m in fines against six airlines for “extreme delays in providing those refunds to passengers,” said Buttigieg this month. That brings the total assessed fines for 2022 to $8.1 million – a record in civil penalties for the department’s consumer protection program.<br/>