The US Department of Transportation announced a $50 million fine against American Airlines this morning, alleging mistreatment of passengers with disabilities that, in some cases, caused physical injury. American Airlines is calling it a mutually-agreed settlement.
DOT Fines American Airlines $50 Million For Violating Disability Laws, AA Calls It Settlement
Announced on a conference call with reporters, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg noted the fine is 25x higher than any recent DOT-issued disability fine and stretches back over a four-year period between 2019 and 2023. Per Buttigieg, during this period, American “provided unsafe and undignified physical assistance to passengers on a number of occasions that, at times, resulted in injuries.”
“They repeatedly failed to provide prompt wheelchair assistance, and they damaged thousands of passengers’ wheelchairs, which left passengers without the device they need to live their life fully.”
American Airlines characterized the fine as as a settlement and that it has taken “significant actions to improve the travel experience for customers traveling with wheelchairs and mobility devices,” including a recent investment of $175 million. Julie Rath, Senior Vice President of Airport Operations, Reservations, and Service Recovery at American, explained:
“This year, American invested over $175 million in service, infrastructure and training to improve the travel experience for customers traveling with wheelchairs or other mobility devices. Today’s agreement reaffirms American’s commitment to taking care of all of our customers.”
American credits its investments with the following:
- Improved wheelchair and scooter handling rate by more than 20% since 2022
- Disability-related complaint rate for wheelchair assistance services has dropped to less than 0.1% (there is less than one complaint for every 1,000 requests for wheelchair assistance)
- Becoming the first U.S. airline to launch an automated tag for mobility devices, which ensures more accurate and consistent information for team members handling the devices and provides enhanced visibility of the devices throughout the customer travel journey
- Adding wheelchair movers to all of its hubs and gateways and new wheelchair lifts at more than 20 airports, with five more expected to be in place by the end of 2024
More fines may be coming. Buttigieg conceded that “American Airlines appears to be one of the worst offenders,” but noted that investigations are ongoing at several carriers.
“The problems that we have uncovered in our investigation are not confined to one airline. We have other active investigations into a number of U.S. airlines for similar violations.”
image: American Airlines
Disabled here . I say , the U.S. is far ahead of other nations in terms of disability assistance . Like , for example , elevators in major train stations .
Many disabled people simply work around problems , and don’t make an issue of it .
Also , one improvement airlines can do immediately is to restrict dogs to the few bona fide blind-dogs , and not the many fake “emotional support” pet animals .
100%, the problem is out of control. They have a plan to address early borders, they can solve this one too.
AA treated these poor people worse than a certain poster here treated young models when he was CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch.
Self-projecting, are we?
Nope, never a CEO here. It’s only you self righteous a##holes that think your sh#t doesn’t stink. But I’m sure it does on the guys junk when he’s done with you.
More projecting. You get kinkier and grosser by the day. You’re such a weirdo, even by troll standards.
Question here. Were AA employed people that messed up or contractors? Not taking the blame from them but usually when I see those wheelchair handlers waiting at the plane door they are airport employees and not airline employees. Am I missing something here? I mean, don’t those handlers serve all airlines on the same airport?
@Santastico … Likely the damage to personal wheelchairs sent as checked items is the major issue . Whether the baggage handlers are employees or contractors wouldn’t really matter , as the airline has control of them .
“They repeatedly failed to provide prompt wheelchair assistance,” That is not provided by airline employees but airport employees that serve the airlines.
@Santastico … Yep .
Alert, video from November 2023 shows AA launching wheelchairs (MIA) down a ramp. The chairs flip up and spin in the air before crashing down. Horrible.
@Maryland … Yes , that was disgusting .
General observation that cost cutting measures on airlines particularly smaller seats, narrow aisles, and smaller bathrooms make them difficult for the abled to navigate much less the handicapped. The narrow aisles also make it more difficult, and dangerous, for the FA’s to push heavy service carts.
@Polish … All true , and the big bucks flow into the executive suites .
Wow, $50 million. The guvmnt is picking a number out of the air. Why not $200 million or $500 million? Put AA out of business. That’ll teach the bastards. It can be Mayor Pete’s first ad when he runs for president in 2028.
I’d like to know where this $50,000,000 is going? I’m in a wheelchair and have had to wait for long periods of time for someone to remove me from an aircraft. American even misplaced my wheelchair in April 2024, in PHL on my way to DFW. Am I being compensated at all?