The United States Department of Transportation (DOT) is suing Southwest Airlines over its chronically delayed flights. The agency announced the lawsuit against the airline for illegally operating multiple chronically delayed flights and disrupting passengers’ travel. According to the DOT, operating chronically delayed flights is an unrealistic scheduling practice and can harm both passengers and fair competition across the airline industry and it is seeking maximum civil penalties.
Federal regulations prohibit airlines from promising flight schedules that do not reflect actual departure and arrival times. This unrealistic scheduling is considered an unfair, deceptive, and anticompetitive practice that disrupts passengers’ travel plans, denies them reliable scheduling information, and allows airlines to unfairly capture business from competitors by misleading consumers.
When flights have been chronically delayed, airlines must adjust their flight schedules accordingly. Continuing to market a flight that has been chronically delayed for more than four consecutive months is a form of unrealistic scheduling.
According to the DOT, a flight is chronically delayed if it is flown at least 10 times a month and arrives more than 30 minutes late more than 50 percent of the time. This includes flights that acre cancelled ort forced to divert.
The DOT’s investigation found that Southwest operated two chronically delayed flights, one between Chicago Midway International Airport (MDW) and Oakland (OAK), and another between Baltimore (BWI) and Cleveland (CLE) These two flights resulted in 180 flight disruptions for passengers between April and August 2022. Each flight was chronically delayed for five straight months.
The DOT states that its rules provide airlines adequate time to fix their schedule after a flight becomes chronically delayed in order to avoid illegal unrealistic scheduling. Southwest seems not to have complied with the DOT rules leading to this filing.
The lawsuit against Southwest was filed jointly with the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. In the announcement U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, stated:
“As part of our commitment to supporting passenger rights and fairness in the market for airline travel, we are suing Southwest Airlines for disrupting passengers’ travel with unlawful chronic flight delays. Airlines have a legal obligation to ensure that their flight schedules provide travelers with realistic departure and arrival times. Today’s action sends a message to all airlines that the Department is prepared to go to court in order to enforce passenger protections.”
In addition to its action against Southwest, the DOT also took enforcement action against Frontier Airlines today for operating multiple chronically delayed flights. The ultra-low-cost carrier was fined $650,000 in civil penalties with $325,000 to be paid to the U.S. Treasury and the remaining $325,000 to be suspended if the carrier does not operate any chronically delayed flights in the next three years.
This is similar to the action that was taken two weeks ago when JetBlue was fined $2 million for its chronically delayed flights. While a new administration is on the horizon, the current administration’s DOT is taking it to the airlines for delays during its final weeks in office.
Summary
The Department of Transportation has filed a lawsuit against Southwest Airlines over its chronically delayed flights. The flights in question occurred between April and August of 2022 on two routes operated by the carrier. The lawsuit comes amidst other DOT actions against JetBlue and Frontier for its respective chronically delayed flights.