The Department of Transportation (DOT) seems to have finally awakened to the reality that if airlines don’t feel any pain, they aren’t motivated to change. After years of cozy inspector/inspected relationships, the federal government department responsible for airline safety seems to mean business. Big fines are flying and the airlines are being called out.
The latest safety violations seem to be coming at the expense of American Airlines where FAA inspectors now claim, according to the Wall Street Journal, that maintenance of MD-80s is substandard. Preliminary FAA findings that “have identified as many as 16 [AA MD-80s] that were operated for months despite allegedly substandard bulkhead repairs.”
Fines for this violation and possible flight cancellations are going to be massive.
It all started about a year-and-a-half ago with the flap over Southwest Airlines and a series of missed inspections. Southwest eventually ended up paying a fine of $7.5 million for inspection violations and the FAA inspector responsible for monitoring Southwest was reassigned.
American Airlines was also caught up last year in a massive maintenance problem that resulted in thousands of flight cancellations. After plenty of back-and-forth bureaucratic bickering, American got the problems fixed. However, it was fined more than $7 million for “improperly deferring maintenance on safety-related equipment and deficiencies with its drug and alcohol testing programs and exit lighting inspections.”
United Airlines and USAirways, earlier this month, have been fined millions of dollars for maintenance failures. United was fined a $3.8 million civil penalty and USAirways was dunned a $5.4 million civil penalty.
FAA fines are going sky high it seems based on a per-aircraft criteria.
I’m still waiting for the FAA to a pronouncement regarding the engine failure problems at American Airlines.
There is no doubt about it. Airline fines are increasing under the current DOT and FAA administrators. The big question remains, will these fines help realign the relationships between the FAA inspectors and the inspected airlines.
The DOT still has a long way to go in its mission to protect consumers. Maintenance and safety are two of the most important responsibilities, but the DOT needs to step up to the plate with better enforcement of bait-and-switch advertising and resolution of consumer problems.
While it is nice to have the department beginning to make some advertising violation fines and record passenger complaints, we would like to see more of their actions against airlines for violating bumping and lost-luggage rules as well as misleading advertising.
It appears that the DOT and the FAA are beginning to become more proactive in their enforcement of safety and consumer regulations as advocacy groups such as the newly-formed Consumer Travel Alliance, this blog and other media outlets are providing a new level of vigilance and enforcement transparency when it comes to consumer issues.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I think the change has less to do with advocacy groups than with the change in administration. The previous administration had a dogmatic belief in deregulation. The only appropriate role for government was to help favored corporations increase their wealth, so the FAA took a “laissez-faire” approach to assuring compliance with burdensome requirements like proper maintenance of aircraft. Since it was an Undisputed Fact that the Free Market does a much better job of ensuring safe flights than Big Government, the best thing the FAA could do was to stay out of the way.
Under the current administration, the FAA is simply restoring its intended regulatory role. Now that they’re auditing and inspecting like they’re supposed to, it seems the Free Market wasn’t doing such a good job after all. And maybe next they’ll take a look at the way the Free Market has been letting airlines reduce the quality of their service even as they keep adding sneaky new fees.
Hmmmm, when I see fines to airlines of that magnitude, my first thought is: they will pass that cost onto the consumer. Somehow I feel that the flying public will end up footing the bill for those fines. Am I wrong?
You’re right, Karen. It’s about time for airlines to “unbundle” the cost of maintenance, along with the cost of the fines imposed for violating regulations. So next time you book a ticket on American or USAir, look for new (unadvertised) fees for “maintenance” and “regulatory compliance.”
I agree with Hapgood. If the FAA was not being pushed by the adminstration the advocacy groups, blogs and other media outlets would be ignored as they were in the past.
Until this year, there has not been an advocacy group that kept tabs on what DOT, FAA, the House committees and the Senate Committees are up to. Efforts have been shotgun and normally single-issue until this point.
Anytime journalists take the time to ask questions and encourage answers and actions by working through multiple channels, it cannot hurt our consumer efforts.
Yes, the administration is more consumer friendly, but the advent of consumer advocacy groups within the airline and transportation world is also having an effect.
In my time in Washington, the consistent comment from other associations like ASTA, NBTA and USTA as well as staffers and members has been, “It’s about time.”
We weren’t there to be ignored in the past. We did write about problems, but never made sure those issues made it directly to those responsible for action. We weren’t sitting in committee hearings. We were not writing directly to the bureaucrats who made regulations. We never had a dialog with Senate and House staffers. We never coordinated with other associations and interest groups. We were easy to ignore. Now, the Consumer Travel Alliance working to address these issues. I like to think we have had some minor effect.