Late final month, the U.S. Division of Transportation made headlines when it introduced a high quality of $50 million, levied in opposition to American Airways for its repeated discrimination in opposition to disabled passengers from 2019 to 2023. The high quality was in response to 1000’s of broken wheelchairs and mistreated passengers.

I’ve reported on the discriminatory practices and tradition at American Airways for years, and it’s clear {that a} high quality was warranted:

Suffice it to say, American Airways isn’t one of many good guys. One may anticipate the service to reverse course following a historic high quality, however I don’t assume that may occur. The sample and apply of violations is prone to proceed.

Final week, I skilled a very egregious violation that I intend to doc in a future article and file as a proper criticism — that means, the criticism will seem within the DOT’s docket and be a public file, open for everybody to see.

When requested about my perspective on the $50 million high quality, I’ve commented that it was not sufficient — American Airways has triggered billions in distress for disabled passengers and there was little effort by the service to treatment its failures. When you have flown or plan to fly with American Airways, make sure to report any disability-related incidents to the USDOT. For an airline with a $10 billion market cap, that $50 million high quality (half of which will probably be credited to previous and future deliberate expenditures) is a drop within the bucket. Make of this what you’ll, however Robert Isom, the CEO of American Airways, collected a $31.4 million compensation bundle in 2023.

The DOT famous that investigations of different carriers are ongoing, and I welcome that — asking solely, what took so lengthy?