US airlines are obliged to refund passengers for cancelled flights

In an enforcement notice published today, the US Department of Transportation left little wriggle room for troubled US airlines. “Passengers should be refunded promptly when their scheduled flights are cancelled or significantly delayed,” wrote Blane Workie, the department’s assistant general counsel for Aviation Enforcement and Proceedings. This remains the case even if the cancellation is due to factors far outside the airline’s control, Workie noted, including due to government restrictions, after Hurricane Katrina and the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, and in presidentially declared natural disasters: “Although the COVID-19 public health emergency has had an unprecedented impact on air travel, the airlines’ obligation to refund passengers for cancelled or significantly delayed flights remains unchanged.”