NEW YORK (AP) -- The Department of Transportation said Friday it fined Spirit Airlines $100,000 for allegedly failing to appropriately record and respond to complaints about the airline's treatment of passengers with disabilities.
The fine stemmed from an inspection in May 2010 of Spirit's corporate headquarters in Miramar, Fla. DOT said the review revealed that Spirit hadn't reported all its complaints on disability-related issues, as required by the department.
The department said its aviation enforcement office found that "many issues raised in the complaints were not separately counted and a large number of additional complaints were not accounted for."
Spirit also failed to provide sufficient responses for a majority of the complaints spanning 2009 and 2010, the department said. Spirit had no comment.
DOT rules call for airlines to sort disability-related complaints into categories based on the type of disability and nature of the complaint, and submit an annual report on disability complaints received the previous year.
