The Biden administration fined American Airlines $50 million over accessibility concerns
The Biden administration is slapping American Airlines with a record fine, criticizing the airline’s treatment of passengers who use wheelchairs for their mobility devices – and essential equipment.
The US Department of Transportation on Wednesday announced a $50 million fine against Americans.
As part of the settlement, the Fort Worth, Texas-based carrier will have to pay a $25 million fine to the federal government. It will also be required to invest an additional $25 million to improve the passenger experience for travelers with disabilities, from interactions to infrastructure that helps staff handle mobility devices.
The penalties imposed by DOT come after the department revealed it discovered “multiple serious violations” of passenger rights laws between 2019 and 2023.
During that time, the DOT said American mishandled thousands of wheelchairs and repeatedly failed to provide timely wheelchair assistance. Investigators also discovered unsafe or disrespectful treatment of passengers with disabilities, which in some cases resulted in injuries.
“The bottom line is that the era of tolerating poor treatment of wheelchair users on planes is over. Breaking passengers’ wheelchairs or treating them in a disrespectful or unsafe manner is not only is wrong but also illegal and that is why we are taking sanctions.” Historic action here,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said on a call with reporters.
In a statement to TPG on Wednesday, American said it “has a longstanding commitment to serving passengers with disabilities.” The airline added that it made more than 8 million requests for wheelchair assistance in 2023, only 0.1% of which resulted in a complaint.
Other airlines are also under investigation
In announcing the heavy penalties against American, the DOT acknowledged the carrier was not alone.
The DOT Office of Aviation Consumer Protection has multiple active investigations into other U.S. airlines.
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“While American Airlines appears to be one of the most culpable, the problems we uncovered in the investigation were not limited to just one airline,” Buttigieg said.
Still, DOT officials said, from 2019 to 2023, American ranked near the top in several major complaint categories, from lack of timely wheelchair assistance to mishandling moving devices.
DOT specifically pointed to a series of complaints against American by the nonprofit Paralyzed American Veterans, a longtime advocate for passengers with disabilities on commercial flights.
The department specifically mentioned, as evidence, a famous 2023 social media post that appeared to show a wheelchair careening down a luggage ramp before flipping violently to the ground in Miami – a case in which Buttigieg, at the time, was described as “completely unacceptable” on social platform X.
According to Bureau of Transportation Statistics data, airlines mishandled more than 1,000 wheelchairs, scooters and mobility devices in August alone — the last month for which the agency has data.
In 2023, carriers mishandled about 1.38% of mobile devices, down slightly from 1.41% in 2022, according to BTS data.
Passengers with damaged mobility devices often face significant inconvenience and sometimes unsafe conditions while waiting for their wheelchair to be repaired or replaced — with many of those devices being customized high to meet their individual needs.
Meant to prevent
The DOT’s hefty fine on American is 25 times larger than any comparable fine, Buttigieg said — it’s meant to “change airline behavior.”
But this is just the latest instance of the Biden administration taking a heavy-handed approach to regulating airlines in the name of consumer protection.
In 2022, DOT explicitly outlined decades-old protections for passengers with disabilities in a Aviation Passenger with Disabilities Bill of Rights.
Earlier this year, Ministry propose a new rule that would tighten requirements on how airlines serve passengers and handle mobility devices, calling for tough penalties for carriers that mishandle wheelchairs – along with imposing Use a more rigorous employee training program.
The Biden administration also finalized a rule last year requiring carriers to get started early Install accessible toilets on new single-aisle jets delivered starting in the 2030s; female Airline Access Act, signed by former President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, required larger lavatories on wide-body jets.
Americans react
As part of this latest action, American will be required to invest $25 million to purchase equipment to minimize wheelchair damage at dozens of airports nationwide. This is in addition to compensating passengers affected by alleged violations between 2019 and 2023.
For its part, the carrier told TPG that it has invested more than $175 million this year in new services, infrastructure, training and technology at its airports — including vehicles New taxis and elevators at more than 20 airports. American said additional airports will have their equipment upgraded later this year.
“Despite these improvements, there are still instances where the service an airline provides is interrupted, untimely, or causes harm to passengers or their equipment. American reviews all complaints and take these complaints seriously and they work to remedy them,” the carrier said. said in a statement Wednesday.
The U.S. Travel Association also weighed in on Wednesday’s announcement, noting that American’s “commitment and concern” for customers with disabilities “is evident in the progress and investments that they did,” a spokesperson said in a statement to TPG.
With a broader range of key performance metrics, American Airlines ranked fourth among US airlines in the US TPG’s 2024 Best US Airlines Report.
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