American Airlines fined $50 million for not providing wheelchairs to disabled passengers

The US government fined American Airlines $50 million for failing to provide wheelchair assistance to passengers with disabilities and damaging thousands of wheelchairs over a five-year period.The Transportation Department said Wednesday that “in some cases,” wheelchair users were injured, but it did not give a number.American said it has made significant investments to improve the handling of wheelchairs.The airline will be credited $25 million, or half of its civil penalty, for those investments and compensation paid to affected passengers, according to a consent order.The incidents raised by the Transportation Department occurred between 2019 and 2023.The investigation was prompted in part by three formal complaints the Paralyzed Veterans of America filed against American.Investigators also seized on video of an incident at Miami International Airport last year.

Workers slid a wheelchair down a baggage ramp.It crashed into the bottom of the chute, flipped over and skittered across the concrete.Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said American Airlines “appeared to be one of the worst offenders,” but the problems that investigators found “are not confined to one airline.” He said the department is conducting similar investigations into other airlines, but he would not name them.“The era of tolerating poor treatment of wheelchair users on airplanes is over,” Buttigieg declared to reporters.Buttigieg said American’s mistreatment of travelers with disabilities was “not just undignified but unsafe.”Carl Blake, the CEO of Paralyzed Veterans of America, praised the department’s action.“We are pleased to see DOT making such a strong statement for how it will hold airlines accountable for jeopardizing the well-being of passengers with disabilities, particularly wheelchair and scooter users,” Blake said in a statement.

“We are confident this unprecedented enforcement will make it clear to the entire airline industry that passengers with ...