By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Donald Trump’s administration said on Friday it was formally withdrawing a plan by his predecessor to require airlines to pay passengers cash compensation when U.S. flight disruptions are caused by carriers.
In December 2024, the U.S. Transportation Department under then-President Joe Biden sought public comment on writing rules to require airlines to pay $200 to $300 for domestic delays of at least three hours and up to $775 for longer delays.
In September, USDOT first disclosed it planned to withdraw the proposal. On Friday, USDOT said the rules would result in “unnecessary regulatory burdens” in explaining why it would not go forward.
Last month, a group of 18 Democratic senators urged the Trump administration not to drop the compensation plan.
“This is a common-sense proposal: when an airline’s mistake imposes unanticipated costs on families, the airline should try to remedy the situation by providing accommodations to consumers and helping cover their costs,” said the letter signed by Democratic Senators Richard Blumenthal, Maria Cantwell, Ed Markey and others.
Airlines in the U.S. must refund passengers for canceled flights, but are not required to compensate customers for delays. The European Union, Canada, Brazil and Britain all have airline delay compensation rules. No large U.S. airline currently guarantees cash compensation for significant flight disruption.
USDOT said Friday in abandoning the compensation plan that it would “allow airlines to compete on the services and compensation that they provide to passengers rather than imposing new minimum requirements for these services and compensation through regulation, which would impose significant costs on airlines.”
USDOT also announced in September it was considering rescinding Biden regulations requiring airlines and ticket agents to disclose service fees alongside airfares.
It also plans to reduce regulatory burdens on airlines and ticket agents by writing new rules detailing the definition of a flight cancellation that entitles consumers to ticket refunds, as well as revisiting rules on ticket pricing and advertising.
Airlines have pushed the Trump administration to go further and praised the action to rescind the Biden plan.
(Reporting by David Shepardson, Editing by Franklin Paul and Alison Williams)
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