FILE – Travelers wait in line at the TSA security checkpoint at Dallas Love Field Airport (DAL) in Dallas, Texas, US, on Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2025. Photographer: Shelby Tauber/Bloomberg via Getty Images
A rule that would have required airlines to provide compensation and cover meals and lodging for lengthy flight delays or cancellations has been scrapped by the Trump administration.
In a document posted Thursday, President Donald Trump’s Transportation Department said its plan to drop the proposed rule is “consistent with Department and administration priorities.”
What did the rule require?
The backstory:
The rule, proposed in the final weeks of the Biden administration, sought compensation starting at $200 when a flight is canceled or significantly delayed because of a mechanical problem with the plane or an airline computer outage. Compensation as high as $775 was proposed for delays of nine hours or more.
The Transportation Department was also considering free rebooking on the next available flight, including flights on rival airlines, as well as meals and lodging when passengers are stranded overnight.
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Airlines already offer some level of customer service when they cause flight cancellations or severe delays, but passengers usually have to ask for help at the airport, and airline promises don’t carry the weight of federal rules.
The rule would have aligned U.S. policy more closely with European airline consumer protections, but Biden’s Transportation Department left it up to the Trump administration to implement.
Why did the rule get scrapped?
Big picture view:
Trump has sought to significantly roll back or modify federal regulations that his administration deems are wasteful or burdensome.
What they’re saying:
“We will faithfully implement all aviation consumer protection requirements mandated by Congress, including the requirement to refund ticket prices to passengers in the case of airline canceled or substantially delayed flights when consumers choose not to travel,” a Transportation Department spokesperson told FOX TV Stations. “Some of the rules proposed or adopted by the previous administration, however, went beyond what Congress has required by statute, and we intend to reconsider those extra-statutory requirements.
What do the airlines say?
Airlines fiercely opposed the rule, and industry trade groups welcomed the change.
“We are encouraged by this Department of Transportation reviewing unnecessary and burdensome regulations that exceed its authority and don’t solve issues important to our customers,” the trade group Airlines for America said in a statement.
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“There is no free lunch,” budget carrier Spirit Airlines said when the rule was proposed. “If every time a flight has to be cancelled due to, say, an aircraft maintenance issue, airlines were required to pay each affected passenger $300 plus hotel and meals, there would be a perverse incentive to cancel flights preemptively at any hint of trouble.”
