Will government caused flight delays mean more fines for airlines?

The full airline petition can be read here.  The Obama administration is refusing to comment on their request.  Here is an article from The Hill newspaper.

A pair of airline lobbying groups is asking the Department of Transportation (DOT) to not count flights that were delayed because of the sequester from its usual tally of late airplanes.  . . .
But in a petition submitted to the DOT this week, Airlines for America (A4A) and the Regional Airline Association (RAA) said flights were held back in April because of air traffic controller furloughs that were attributed to the sequester. 
“Airlines for America and the Regional Airline Association ... hereby request that the Department grant a limited exemption ... that would exclude all flights in the month of April 2013 from the ‘chronically delayed flight’ designation/status due to the substantial delays and disruption to air travel that occurred from the Federal Aviation Administration decision to implement daily ground delays and reduce air traffic control personnel as part of its sequestration implementation plan adopted in response to the Budget Control Act of 2011 and the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012,” the groups wrote in their petition.The FAA purposely delayed flights at major airports from April 21-27 because the agency furloughed about 10 percent of its air traffic controllers in response to the automatic budget cuts known as the sequester. Congress quickly passed abill to give the FAA flexibility to move money around in its budget to end the flight delays as passenger complaints mounted.  . . .