The United States government is planning to drop the proposed regulation requiring airlines to pay passengers between USD200 and USD775 for domestic delays lasting more than three hours. The Department of Transportation moved to withdraw the Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, drafted in December 2024 by the Joe Biden administration.
In the filing, the department said that withdrawing the proposal would be “consistent with department and administration priorities.”
Trade body Airlines for America told the news agency Bloomberg in a statement that it was encouraged by the DOT’s review of “unnecessary and burdensome regulations that exceed its authority and don’t solve issues important to our customers.”
Under the proposed rule, compensation for delays of at least six hours and less than nine hours would range between USD375 and USD525, while delays of nine hours or more amount to fines of USD750 to USD775. However, airlines would only be liable in cases where the delay is their fault.
Instead, the DOT under Donald Trump’s current administration will seek to implement all aviation consumer protection requirements mandated by Congress, a representative told Bloomberg, adding that some of the rules proposed or adopted by the Biden administration “went beyond what Congress has required by statute, and we intend to reconsider those extra-statutory requirements.”
