In the recent past, delays in flight scheduling have become a common place across the board, even in India, where commute through has increased over the past few years.
US Airline Fined For Delays
Just in the last month of 2024, IndiGo was under the pump for delays of over 9 hours in flight journeys, leaving potential fliers in absolute disarray.
Recently, a development from the United States on this matter has garnered some traction.
A US airline by the name JetBlue has been slapped with a fine of USD 2 million, which in today’s exchange rate would amount to around Rs 17 crore for flight delays.
A US airline by the name JetBlue has been slapped with a fine of USD 2 million, which in today’s exchange rate would amount to around Rs 17 crore for flight delays. |
According to the United States governmental department responsible for transportation in the country, half of the fine, that is, about a million dollars, will go to passengers who had to suffer from the delays caused by the scheduling system followed by the airline based out of New York State.
In addition, the United States Department of Transportation under the outgoing Transport Secretary Pete Buttigieg has also said that it will look into other other American airlines and their “unrealistic scheduling”.
United States, given its population of over 330 million (third largest in the world) and its size (third largest along with China), is highly reliant on airline, particularly cheap airlines.
(File photo) An IndiGo Airlines plane | X
Could India Do The Same?
Here, the airline in question, JetBlue is a Low Cost Carrier (LCC). This is where it becomes relevant in the Indian context. India, given its status as an extensively price-sensitive market, is dominated by such LCCs, including IndiGo and SpiceJet.
The recent delays in airlines have raised a question on the capabilities, and by extension, the limitations of these airlines.
At the beginning of last year (2024), the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation has to intervene in scheduling in flights taking off from the Mumbai Airport, in order to reduce congestion.
As mentioned before, incidents of indubitably egregious delays in the recent past, led to the question, of whether the Indian authorities could look into the unrealistic scheduling of airlines in India.
The shares of JetBlue closed the first trading week of 2025 in red. The shares closed with loses of 3.10 per cent or USD 0.24 over the past 5 trading sessions, taking the overall value of the company stock to USD 7.51.
