Airlines have paid more than $600 million in refunds to hundreds of thousands of passengers for flight cancellations or changes since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Department of Transportation said Monday.   

  At the same time, federal regulators are cracking down on a half-dozen airlines they say are violating rules that determine when refunds are issued.  All this comes as airlines struggle to keep up with the rapid increase in demand for air travel.   

  The department is also issuing $7.25 million in fines against the six airlines for “extreme delays in providing these refunds to passengers,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said on a call with reporters.   

  That brings the total estimated fines for 2022 to $8.1 million – a record in civil penalties for the department’s consumer protection program.   

  Ultra-low-cost carrier Frontier Airlines is the only US airline facing fines related to refunds.  Foreign carriers face the most fines: Air India, TAP Portugal, Aeromexico, El Al and Avianca.   

  “[T]The department’s expectation that when Americans buy a ticket on an airline, we expect to get to our destination safely and reliably and economically.  And our job at DOT is to hold airlines accountable to those expectations, many of which are a matter of law and regulation,” Buttigieg said.   

  Last month, the Department of Transportation reported that of the 7,243 consumer complaints received about airlines in August, nearly one in five involved refunds.   

  The process for getting refunds from airlines varied by airline, according to Blane Workie, DOT assistant general counsel for the Office of Aviation Consumer Protection, who spoke on the call with Buttigieg.   

  For example, Frontier changed the definition of “significant program change” in March 2020.   

  “Essentially, they were retroactively applying a tougher rule for consumers, and I can confidently say that Frontier would not have provided these refunds to tens of thousands of passengers had the DOT not been involved,” he said.   

  As part of the process, the DOT asked Frontier to provide the required refunds or inform all those passengers of how to get refunds should they need to fill out forms.   

  Other airlines have had extreme delays in providing refunds, Workie said.   

  Most of the refund complaints the ministry has received have involved foreign carriers, Workie noted.   

  Asked if that would act as a deterrent to airlines, Buttigieg said, “the overall goal is to make sure passengers get their money back.”   

  “It should not take enforcement action from the US Department of Transportation to get airlines to pay refunds they are required to pay.  And so, I asked the team to do an exercise to make sure that the fines are calibrated to prevent this in the future and save passengers a lot of time and save everybody a lot,” he said.   

  Buttigieg later noted that the department would continue to “strengthen the penalty side” until it sees less of this type of behavior.   

  All refunds have either been made or consumers should have been informed of the refund process, according to Workie.   

  However, fines will be collected after DOT orders are issued on Monday.   

  There are more enforcement actions and investigations underway, according to Buttigieg, who said “there may be more news through fines.”   

  However, Workie said there are no pending refund investigations against the US airlines.   

  Buttigieg also noted the upcoming holiday travel season, saying it is expected to be “one of the busiest” of 2019 in terms of busy travel days.   

  He talked about other actions taken by the department, including a new airline consumer service dashboard to help people see what they owe when a flight is canceled or delayed because of an airline problem.