TRAVEL SEASON

Senators Demand Buttigieg Increase Compensation for Flight Delays

Three senators said airlines should be forced to cover costs like hotel rooms when an airline cancels or significantly delays a flight.

Democratic Sens. Maria Cantwell (WA), Edward Markey (MA) and Richard Blumenthal (CT) wrote a letter to Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Wednesday urging him to increase compensation for flyers when airlines cancel or delay flights, especially as the busy holiday season begins. Many airlines voluntarily cover passengers’ meals, hotels or flight change fees when lengthy delays occur, but not all airlines do. The senators said airlines should be forced to compensate flyers’ “secondary costs”—like hotel rooms, food and drink, and transport to-and-from the airport—when an airline cancels or significantly delays a flight “due to a problem within its control.” The Department of Transportation said airlines have paid more than $600 million in refunds since COVID began, and the department has dished out $7.25 million in fines to airlines for “extreme delays in providing those refunds to passengers.”