Transport Minister Sean Duffy is launching a civility campaign, ‘Dress Better, Act Better, Fly Better’, urging air travelers to dress respectfully and exercise courtesy.
The Department of Transportation (DOT) announced Friday that it is temporarily suspending refund obligations when airlines change their flight numbers. This relaxes a rule that currently considers renumbered flights as cancellations that warrant passenger refunds.
Regulations introduced in 2024 under the Biden administration noted that flights that receive a different number than the one assigned when the consumer purchased the ticket will be considered new flights, with the original flight considered canceled and eligible for a refund.
The DOT said that effective immediately, it will not enforce requirements regarding refunds when a flight is renumbered, as long as the passenger on the flight is rebooked under the new number and the flight operates without any “significant change or delay.”
US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has not yet commented on the pause, which came into effect on December 5. (Reuters/Anna Rose Layden / Reuters Photos)
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The announcement comes after a review in April which sought to limit the burden on airlines for operational or commercial changes that do not seriously impact passengers.
The DOT also received a request for enforcement discretion from two US airlines following their merger. In that request, the airlines described the need to renumber tens of thousands of flights for operational integration and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) compliance.
The DOT determined that passengers were not harmed by the renumbering and granted the request.
The pause will take effect once the DOT decides whether to roll back Biden-era regulations. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images/Getty Images)
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Recently, officials said the department received notice from another U.S. airline calling for a revision to the current definition of a canceled flight, as established by the previous administration, arguing that the definition is not legally required, does not reflect the realities of airline operations and is “too broad.”
Enforcement will be suspended until June 30, pending a decision on whether to move forward with a final rule to change the definition of a canceled flight, the DOT said.
It is unclear which airlines submitted the requests, prompting the review. (REUTERS/Damir Sagolj / Reuters)
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“The Department is taking this interim step by pausing enforcement of its refund requirements under these specific limited circumstances while it pursues new rulemaking to consider whether to change the definition of canceled flights through rulemaking,” officials wrote in a document published Friday in the Federal Register.
A final decision is expected in February, after which stakeholders will have a comment period to submit their input.
