American Airlines will have to pay a record US$50 million in penalties for the airline’s repeated mistreatment of disabled passengers in recent years.
“The era of tolerating mistreatment of disabled airline passengers is over. With this sanction, we establish a new standard of accountability for airlines that violate (their) civil rights,” US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement on Wednesday, according to CBS News.
American Airlines has reportedly reached an agreement with the Department of Transportation, indicating that it would pay a hefty fine of US$50 million, after being accused of violating laws that protect disabled air passengers.
Because according to the American department, the company would have, on numerous occasions, provided “dangerous physical assistance” to passengers in wheelchairs, which would even have “sometimes led to injuries and undignified treatment for wheelchair users”, indicated the federal agency in writing, according to the American media.
What’s more, the air carrier also allegedly mishandled or damaged thousands of wheelchairs belonging to travelers between 2019 and 2023, causing them trouble getting to their destination, CBS News noted.
One of the incidents also went around the web in 2023 and had obtained millions of views, while an employee of the company was filmed as he dropped a wheelchair down a ramp of several meters , propelling the object into the air before causing a strong impact on the ground.
“By setting penalties at levels beyond just the cost of doing business for airlines, we aim to change the way the industry behaves and prevent this kind of abuse from happening in the first place.” , continued Pete Buttigieg in writing.
The Transport Secretary, however, clarified that this problem was not confined to one airline, but would rather be commonplace, so he hopes to send a clear message with the sanction.
“We have other active investigations into a number of U.S. airlines for similar violations,” he said in a call with reporters, according to CBS News.
Of this fine, US$25 million will be paid to the Treasury Department, while the rest will be invested in equipping airlines for people in wheelchairs, as well as in compensating passengers.
