WASHINGTON — Airlines that operate chronically delayed flights could face stiff fines in the coming weeks as the government concludes a six- month investigation into potentially deceptive business practices.
The Transportation Department in May began investigating flights that are at least 15 minutes late more than 70 percent of the time, and, so far, has identified 26 that meet those criteria, an agency spokesman said Tuesday.
If any of those 26 flights also were delayed in the most recent quarter reviewed, the responsible airlines will face “significant financial penalties,” agency spokesman Brian Turmail said. Results of the investigation are expected within weeks.
The commercial airlines trade group criticized the government’s possible penalties.
“We’re disappointed that they’re taking this course of action given the effort by industry to significantly reduce delays,” said David Castelveter, spokesman for the Air Transport Association.
Also Tuesday, federal aviation regulators opened a two-day summit aimed at fixing “epidemic” delays at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.
The latest government proposal for reducing congestion at JFK, which had the worst on-time departure record of any major U.S. airport through August, is to reduce the hourly flight limit by 20 percent.
Frontier Airlines spokesman Joe Hodas expected a representative for Frontier and other airlines at the meeting to track the issue.
“It’s a pretty substantive issue even if we don’t specifically fly to JFK,” Hodas said. “It could be a model for other congested airports. So it’s important that we have a good understanding of what’s going on.”
Because Denver International Airport has six strategically placed runways and is relatively remote, it does not have the air-traffic-congestion issues that other U.S. airports do.
Denver Post staff writer Kelly Yamanouchi contributed to this report.
