The United States Department of Transportation has launched a new online dashboard to help flyers with delays and cancellations ahead of the Labor Day weekend.
According to The Associated Press, starting Thursday, travelers can check an online dashboard and find what kinds of guarantees, refunds or compensations are available from the major domestic airlines if flights are delayed or canceled.
The AP said that this was designed to help travelers shop around when trying to book a flight and find the airlines that have the best compensation.
The dashboard is part of Transporation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s extended pressure campaign that has challenged airlines to improve their services and transparency, with customers following a summer filled with cancellations and delays due to staffing shortages and so forth, said the AP. The hope is that this creates competition among the airlines to drive more transparency and the best protections for customers.
According to a news release from the Department of Transportation, Buttigieg wrote a letter to CEOs of airline companies to inform them about the new dashboard ahead of the Labor Day holiday weekend. The release said that all but one of the largest U.S. airlines made huge changes to their plans to provide travelers with improved services when their flights are delayed or canceled because of an airline issue.
“Passengers deserve transparency and clarity on what to expect from an airline when there is a cancelation or disruption,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, in the news release. “This dashboard collects that information in one place so travelers can easily understand their rights, compare airline practices, and make informed decisions. The Department will continue to support passengers and to hold airlines responsible for adhering to their customer obligations.”
So far in 2022, 146,000 flights have been canceled and about 1.3 million flights have been delayed, according to the AP per FlightAware. Cancellation rates are up about a third during the same time in 2019 before the pandemic.
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