The U.S. Department of Transportation is fining American Airlines $4.1 million over its habit of loading passengers onto planes and leaving them for hours on the tarmac. The fine, citing 43 flights and 5,800 passengers, works out to about $700 for each traveler affected, with the fine split between them and the government.
In the longest of the delays, passengers sat aboard a plane in Texas in August 2020 for six hours and three minutes. The 105-passenger flight had landed after being diverted from the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport due to severe weather, with the DOT alleging that "American lacked sufficient resources to appropriately handle several of these flights once they landed."
American Airlines blames the weather.
