The Trump administration is scrapping a proposed Biden-era rule that would have made airlines pay customers for long waits when their flights were delayed, according to a document from the U.S. Department of Transportation.
The Transportation Department on Friday published a notice that it is officially withdrawing the proposed rule, introduced in 2024 under President Biden and then-Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. The regulation would have required airlines to pay passengers $200 to $300 for domestic delays lasting at least three hours, and up to $775 for flight delays lasting at least nine hours.
The agency, which announced in September that it planned to abandon the proposal, said the notice will be published in the Federal Register on Monday. The passenger protection measure would have created “unnecessary regulatory burdens,” the Transportation Department said Friday.
In October, a group of Democratic senators defended the regulation in a letter to the Trump administration, calling it a “common-sense proposal” that would have held airlines accountable for their mistakes. They noted that delays can place a financial strain on families when they are forced to rebook flights or secure overnight accommodations.
Customers in the U.S. are entitled to refunds for canceled flights, but no similar protections are in place for delays.
The agency on Friday explained its rationale for ditching the measure, saying the move would “allow airlines to compete on the services and compensation that they provide to passengers rather than imposing new minimum requirements for these services and compensation through regulation, which would impose significant costs on airlines.”
When reached for comment Friday, the Transportation Department told CBS News that the “Biden-Buttigieg proposal was just that — a proposal.”
“It was dropped after the election in the waning days of the administration. It was never enacted, and does not reflect the compensation consumers are currently entitled to with respect to delays and cancellations,” an agency spokesperson said.
