DOT AMENDS PRIOR CONSENT ORDER AND CREDITS FRONTIER FOR COMPENSATING AFFECTED PASSENGERS
May 7, 2026
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On April 17, 2026, DOT’s Office of General Counsel published Order 2026-4-11 which amended a prior consent order issued against Frontier Airlines. The prior consent order was issued under the former Biden administration and alleged that Frontier had violated 49 U.S.C. 41712 and 14 C.F.R. 399.81 by holding out three (3) chronically delayed flights between August 2022 and April 2023. A $650,000 civil penalty was assessed against Frontier even after the U.S. air carrier complied with the investigation conducted by DOT’s Office of Aviation Consumer Protection and settled the matter to avoid protracted litigation. Rather than applying overly broad interpretations of DOT’s consumer protections laws to penalize airlines, the amended consent order seeks to incentivize U.S. and foreign air carriers to make meaningful investments in technological innovations to enhance the passenger experience. The revised penalty, for example, awarded Frontier with a credit of $162,500 for voluntarily providing compensation to affected consumers and for investing in pro-consumer innovations to streamline the airline’s mobile application notification system. As U.S. and foreign air carriers work diligently to comply with DOT’s consumer protections laws, the amended Frontier consent order seems to signal a willingness by current regulators to work with industry to best serve the traveling public through a commonsense approach to enforcement.
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