Volaris fined $300,000 for passenger tarmac delays with no disembarking

Doug Cunningham
·2 min read
UPI
Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg said Wednesday that Volaris airline will pay a $300,000 fine in an example of holding airlines accountable. It's for keeping international flight passengers stuck for over four hours with no chance to leave the planes in violation of federal statutes. File Photo by Michael Reynolds/UPI

May 15 (UPI) -- The U.S. Transportation Department fined Volaris $300,000 Wednesday for stranding international flight passengers on tarmacs for four hours or more in violation of federal statutes.

The airline was also ordered to cease and desist from future violations.

DOT rules bar keeping passengers waiting for four hours or longer with no opportunity to get off the planes.

"If an airline passenger is stranded on the tarmac for hours on end, they have the right to disembark from the plane -- and we're making sure airlines give passengers that opportunity," Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement.

He added the fine was imposed to hold airlines accountable.

The violations Volaris was fined for happened in 2021 and 2022.

An August 2021 flight from Guadalajara to Dallas Fort Worth diverted to Houston George Bush airport kept 157 passengers on the plane for five hours and 32 minutes.

A 2022 Volaris flight from Mexico City to Chicago O'Hare confined 167 passengers to the plane sitting on the tarmac for four hours, 35 minutes when it was diverted to St. Louis. On that flight, passengers also were not given any food or water as required.

In a statement, the DOT said under the Biden administration the department has "advanced the largest expansion of airline passenger rights, issued the biggest fines against airlines for failing consumers, and returned more money to passengers in refunds and reimbursements than ever before in the Department's history."

Last month a new final DOT rule required airlines to give prompt cash refunds to passengers when flights are cancelled or significantly delayed or if baggage is lost.

According to the DOT, almost $4 billion in refunds and reimbursements were returned to airline passengers since President Biden took office.

A 2022 Airline Consumer Dashboard was created by the DOT to help passengers more clearly understand their rights when flights were cancelled or delayed within the airlines' control.