Representatives Espaillat, Maloney Lead Congressional Effort to Protect Aviation Consumers.
Members of Congress Send Letter Urging Department of Transportation to Require Air Carriers to Prioritize Consumer Refunds on Flight Cancellations.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Representatives Adriano Espaillat (NY-13), member of the House Appropriations Committee, and Carolyn B. Maloney (NY-12), Chairwoman of the House Oversight and Reform committee, sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Transportation urging the agency to exercise its administrative authority and require air carriers and ticket agents to provide requested refunds to passengers when a carrier cancels or significantly changes a flight to, from, or within the United States.
Since 2020, the Department of Transportation has received an increased number of complaints and inquiries from airline consumers, who describe having been denied refunds for flights that were canceled or significantly delayed at no fault by the consumer.
“Aviation consumers are experiencing nightmare airline experiences,” wrote the Members. “We urge the Department of Transportation to exercise its administrative authority and require refunds to passengers when carriers cancel or significantly change flights to, from, or within the United States.
“Carriers have had a longstanding obligation to provide a prompt refund to a ticketed passenger when the carrier cancels the passengers flight,” they continued. “The focus is not on whether the flight disruptions are within or outside the carrier’s control, but rather on the fact that the cancellation is through no fault of the passenger.”
The letter comes as JetBlue recently announced its purchase of Spirit Airlines for $3.8 billion amid growing concern of anticompetitive practices that is inconsistent with the public interest.
Rep. Espaillat is a cosponsor of the Cash Refunds for Flight Cancellations Act, which would provide consumers an enforceable right to a full cash refund for flight and ticket cancellations.
Full copy of the letter to the Department of Transportation is available here.
Representative Espaillat is the first Dominican American to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives and his congressional district includes Harlem, East Harlem, West Harlem, Hamilton Heights, Washington Heights, Inwood, Marble Hill and the north-west Bronx. First elected to Congress in 2016, Representative Espaillat is serving his third term in Congress. Representative Espaillat currently serves as a member of the influential U.S. House Committee on Appropriations responsible for funding the federal government’s vital activities. He is also a member of the House Committee on Education and Labor and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC), where he serves in a leadership role as the Second Vice Chair and is a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, where he serves as Deputy Whip. Representative Espaillat also currently serves as a Senior Whip of the Democratic Caucus. To find out more about Rep. Espaillat, visit online at https://espaillat.house.gov/. | 
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