USDOT sues Southwest Airways over ‘chronically delayed’ flights

The US Division of Transportation (USDOT) is suing Southwest Airways for “illegally working a number of chronically delayed flights and disrupting passengers’ journey,” in line with a press launch.

The USDOT’s investigation discovered that “Southwest operated two chronically delayed flights — one between Chicago Halfway Worldwide Airport and Oakland, Calif, and one other between Baltimore, Md. and Cleveland, Ohio — that resulted in 180 flight disruptions for passengers between April and August 2022,” per the discharge. “Every flight was chronically delayed for 5 straight months.”

A flight is taken into account chronically delayed if “it’s flown no less than 10 instances a month and arrives greater than half-hour late greater than 50 % of the time,” the USDOT says.

“Southwest is upset that DOT selected to file a lawsuit over two flights that occurred greater than two years in the past,” Southwest spokesperson Laura Swift says in an announcement to The Verge. “Since DOT issued its Chronically Delayed Flight (CDF) coverage in 2009, Southwest has operated greater than 20 million flights with no different CDF violations. Any declare that these two flights symbolize an unrealistic schedule is solely not credible in comparison with our efficiency over the previous 15 years. In 2024, Southwest led the trade by finishing greater than 99% of its flights with out cancellation.”

As well as, the USDOT is taking “enforcement motion” towards Frontier Airways for working chronically delayed flights. USDOT has fined Frontier $650,000 in civil penalties; the US Treasury will likely be paid $325,000, whereas the opposite $325,000 will likely be suspended if Frontier “doesn’t function any chronically delayed flights within the subsequent three years,” the USDOT says.

Frontier Airways spokesperson Jennifer F. de la Cruz declined to remark.

Earlier this month, USDOT introduced a $2 million penalty towards JetBlue for working chronically delayed flights. The USDOT additionally fined Southwest Airways in 2023 over a vacation meltdown that stranded tens of millions in 2022.