ORLANDO, Fla. —
AirTran Airways says it will change the way it handles complaints from disabled passengers, now that the U.S. Department of Transportation has fined the airline $500,000 for violating federal regulations.
According to a DOT audit of the Orlando-based airline, AirTran failed to provide adequate service to disabled passengers, including wheelchair assistance. The federal agency also said the airline failed to respond adequately to passenger complaints and failed to properly report complaints to the department.
The audit, which examined complaints from 2007 to 2009, showed a “significant number of apparent violations,” including a small number of “egregious” offenses, said the DOT, which imposed the fine on Monday.
AirTran agreed to the fine, the agency added.
While DOT did not detail AirTran’s specific offenses, AirTran spokesman Christopher White said Wednesday the audit found a systemic problem largely involving the “timely availability of wheelchairs.” And while White said the airline had been responding to complaints, it had been doing so in a manner that “may not have met the full spirit” of government regulations.
As a result of the fine, AirTran said, it plans to install a real-time wheelchair-tracking system in the airports of its busiest destinations.
White said that at Orlando International Airport, the airline contracts with an outside company to provide its wheelchair services, but, he added, “the ultimate responsibility falls on us.”
AirTran said it will also hire a person specifically to address the needs of disabled passengers and to respond to any complaints, and it will create a council of senior AirTran executives to oversee disability compliance.
The airline is allowed to allot as much as $200,000 of its $500,000 government fine toward making those improvements, according to the DOT.
During the past three years, AirTran said, it has served more than 920,000 passengers classified as disabled by the DOT. Of those, fewer than half of 1 percent — or roughly 4,600 — reported a problem to the DOT or the airline, it said.
“While the number of complaints is very small, we do take them very seriously,” White said.
Business
After violations, AirTran to improve service for disabled
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