Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Monday that officials helped airline passengers get $600 million in refunds and imposed $7.25 million in fines in cases in which carriers were slow to take action after canceling or delaying flights.

Frontier Airlines faced the steepest fine, according to the Transportation Department, saying tens of thousands of passengers were affected. The budget airline has agreed to a fine of $2.2 million and returned $222 million to ticket holders, the agency said. The department also took action against five foreign airlines for violations of refund rules.

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It also proposed new rules for price transparency and other measures to protect consumers. But some Democratic lawmakers and consumer advocates pushed Buttigieg to take stronger action, including issuing fines, and circulated proposals to allow state attorneys general to take a role in protecting passengers.

William McGee, a senior fellow at the American Economic Liberties Project, said the fines were too late and would not address disruptions at the biggest U.S. carriers. “The USDOT must address widespread flight disruptions amid soaring airfares, and restore confidence in flying ahead of this holiday season, or we all risk a repeat of the summer’s flight debacles,” he said in a statement.

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