US fines LATAM Airlines $1m over delayed ticket refunds

The US D0T said on Monday it fined LATAM Airlines Group $1m after the airline and affiliates routinely failed to provide timely refunds to passengers for US flights. The department said since March 2020, it received more than 750 complaints alleging LATAM, the biggest carrier in Latin America, failed to provide timely refunds after cancelling flights to or from the United States. USDOT said it took LATAM more than 100 days to process thousands of refund requests to payment. LATAM said in a statement it agreed to the $1m fine as part of a consent order. It added the fine was "part of an ongoing USDOT audit of numerous airlines that operate into or within the U.S. that have been fined for the same reason, delays in refunds for unused tickets on flights canceled during the pandemic." LATAM invested $2m in a new digital platform to process refunds faster and is investing another $2m this year on refund processing efforts. Because of COVID-19, LATAM had to cancel more than 1,100 flights daily and saw refund requests quadrupled, the airline told USDOT noting it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and radically downsized the company, resulting in layoffs of thousands of employees.<br/>