DOT fines Virgin America for disability complaints

The federal government fined the airline Virgin America with $100,000 for failure to solve complaints made by passengers with disabilities, and because the airline did not report them to the Department of Transportation.


Virgin America was ordered to cease further violations against these passengers.

 “We expect airlines to respond individually to disability-related complaints and to report those complaints to us,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.  “These are important parts of our rules protecting the rights of passengers, and we will continue to take enforcement action when they are violated.” 

DOT requires airlines to record disability-related grievances, categorize them by their type of disability and nature of the complaint, and submit an annual report on them.  If a complaint covers more than one issue, it  must be counted as another. 

In addition, if an airline receives a written complaint alleging a violation of the Department’s disability rules, the carrier must provide a written response within 30 days that specifically discusses the matter, and give the carrier’s version of  the alleged violation. The airline must say the complaint may be referred to DOT for an investigation.

In July 2011, the DOT’s Aviation Enforcement Office conducted a routine on-site inspection at Virgin America’s corporate headquarters, where it reviewed all its disability complaints. 


The Enforcement Office found Virgin America failed several times to provide written responses to address them.  In addition, Virgin America failed to  categorize and account  all the disability issues questioned from 2008 and 2009.  As result, many complaints were missing from Virgin America’s reports submitted in that period.  

The consent order is available at www.regulations.gov, docket DOT-OST-2012-0002.  The DOT’s annual report on disability air travel complaints is found at  http://airconsumer.dot.gov/publications/gateway1.htm.