American Airlines will now pay out millions of dollars as a penalty for falsely reporting its mail delivery times.

What was the issue?

According to Reuters, American Airlines has agreed to pay USD$22.1m to settle claims over delivery times on its international and domestic mail. The settlement will resolve disputes linked to the investigation dealing with its recorded mail delivery times in 2009 and 2011.

The cargo branch of American Airlines, based at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport in Texas, delivers mail for the United States Postal Service (USPS); a relationship they proudly boast about on their website. In a statement regarding its fraudulent misconduct with USPS, a spokesperson for American Airlines said,

"American [Airlines] is pleased that a settlement agreement was reached in this civil matter concerning problems with how we reported delivery times to the U.S. Postal Service",  adding that USPS is "an important customer" for the airline.

The importance of correct timestamps

United States Postal Service takes its mail delivery seriously, claiming to be the only postal service "that reaches every address in the nation". Since it is not a publicly funded organization, it relies on the sale of goods to carry out its operation. This means that maintaining consistent service and a positive image as a reliable mail carrier is key.

American Airlines transfers mail from six specific locations and ships it across domestic and international borders to USPS customers. When the mail leaves the airline's ownership, American Airlines is obliged to submit electronic scans of their mail containers to USPS with the time at which the post was delivered. This is a contractual obligation on American Airlines' behalf to maintain correct standards for U.S Postal Service.

An attempt to avoid penalties

American Airlines is required to be punctual in its delivery of mail, as per the terms to which its arrangement with USPS was set out. However, any late mail or mail delivered to the wrong location can incur financial penalties. One way to avoid such penalties is, of course, to mark postal times falsely, back-dating the delivery. But recording mail delivery times in this way seems to have backfired for American Airlines, after the matter was settled by the US Justice Department.

In light of the announcement of its settlement, a spokesperson for American Airlines issued a statement saying that it has "invested in new equipment and procedures to ensure that we are in full compliance with our commitments".

Airline under attack

This isn't the first time this year that American Airlines has been in the spotlight for poor conduct. In July, the airline received negative publicity twice; firstly for fat-shaming a dog and secondly for asking a passenger to wear a blanket on her flight as airline staff found her outfit to be inappropriate. This month, as well as breaching its mail delivery contract with USPS, the airline also left an eight-year-old boy unaccompanied and stranded in Charlotte airport whilst on a layover on the way back from a summer camp in Virginia.