The Division of Transportation filed a lawsuit in opposition to Southwest Airways on Wednesday, accusing the provider of “illegally working a number of chronically delayed flights.”
The DOT mentioned that it additionally fined Frontier Airways as much as $650,000 for equally operating a number of routes which can be chronically delayed.
In response to the lawsuit, Southwest allegedly ran two routes that have been delayed a complete of 180 instances between April and August 2022, popping out to 5 straight months of continual delays. The DOT mentioned it defines an everyday industrial flight as “chronically delayed” whether it is scheduled to function at the very least 10 instances a month and arrives greater than half-hour late at the very least half of the time.
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“Airways have a authorized obligation to make sure that their flight schedules present vacationers with real looking departure and arrival instances,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg mentioned in an announcement. “Right this moment’s motion sends a message to all airways that the Division is ready to go to courtroom so as to implement passenger protections.”
The routes cited within the lawsuit embody one between Chicago’s Halfway Worldwide Airport (MDW) and Oakland Worldwide Airport (OAK) in California, and a flight between Baltimore/Washington Worldwide Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI) and Cleveland Hopkins Worldwide Airport (CLE). The airline was chargeable for greater than 90% of the delays on the routes, the DOT mentioned, moderately than a trigger exterior of its management comparable to inclement climate.
In an announcement, Southwest mentioned it was disenchanted that DOT selected to file the lawsuit over flights from greater than two years in the past, and famous that it had not been marked for any earlier violations since 2009, when the DOT carried out its “chronically delayed flight” coverage.
“Any declare that these two flights signify an unrealistic schedule is solely not credible in comparison with our efficiency over the previous 15 years,” Southwest added in its assertion. “In 2024, Southwest led the business by finishing greater than 99% of its flights with out cancellation.”
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Frontier was fined for violating the coverage, the DOT mentioned, moderately than sued. The airline shall be required to pay $325,000 for the alleged violations, with an extra $325,000 that may be suspended if the airline doesn’t function any chronically delayed flights for the subsequent three years.
Earlier this month, the DOT issued a $2 million effective to JetBlue over 4 chronically delayed flights. It was the primary time the company had fined an airline over the problem.
It isn’t clear why the DOT is suing Southwest whereas it fined JetBlue and Frontier. A spokesperson didn’t instantly reply to TPG’s request for extra info.
In an interview with TPG final yr, Buttigieg mentioned that the company was pressuring airways to “show the realism of their schedules,” noting {that a} provider may publish scheduled departure and arrival instances that it is aware of it could actually’t truly meet “for causes of gaining market share or different anti-competitive causes.”
“We’ve lively investigations proper now, and are calling on airways to do the correct factor within the first place and never permit there to be purpose for suspicion that they’re knowingly scheduling flights that they don’t seem to be ready to adequately serve,” Buttigieg mentioned on the time.
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