In a press release issued on Wednesday, January 15th, 2025, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), announced they had filed a lawsuit against Southwest Airlines for the “illegal operation of chronically delayed flights, and disruption of passengers’ travel.”
The bold move comes after
Ryanair in Europe recently filed a lawsuit
against a disruptive passenger who caused a flight to be diverted in April 2024, costing the airline thousands of euros in additional expenses; the European airline is now on a mission to lawfully punish passengers who continue to portray aggressive and unruly behavior on flights that disrupts passengers travel.
The statement also went on to notify the press that the government agency had also fined Frontier Airlines for “operating multiple chronically delayed flights.” This announcement comes less than two weeks after the DOT
fined JetBlue $2 million
for chronically delayed flights.
According to the DOT’s lawsuit, Southwest Airlines has been “operating chronically delayed flights is an unrealistic scheduling practice and can harm both passengers and fair competition across the airline industry. DOT’s lawsuit against Southwest seeks maximum civil penalties.”
“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,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in the statement.
The government office cites that the airlines also failed to adjust schedules for delayed flights, but rather ignored that requirement and instead marketed the flights “with an unrealistic schedule.”
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DOT Stepping Up Enforcement of Chronically Delayed Flights By Suing One Airline and Fining Another
According to the DOT’s investigation into Southwest’s persistent flight delays, the government agency focused on two incidents as an example in their lawsuit filing: “A Dallas-based Southwest operated two chronically delayed flights – one between Chicago Midway International Airport and Oakland, California, and another between Baltimore, Maryland and Cleveland, Ohio,” according to the press release statement.
Those persistent flight delays continued for five full months, according to the DOT, resulting in 180 flight disruptions for passengers between April and August 2022.
“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,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, continued.
The U.S. government agency also fined Frontier Airlines a total of “$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,” according to the statement.
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Southwest Airlines Responds to DOT’s Lawsuit While Frontier Airlines Remains Quiet
Immediately following the DOT’s lawsuit announcement, Southwest Airlines responded with a great deal of disappointment stating the government agency is clearly not focusing on the airline’s long-term record but rather choosing to focus on flights over two years ago.
“Since DOT issued its Chronically Delayed Flight (CDF) policy in 2009, Southwest has operated more than 20 million flights with no other CDF violations. Any claim that these two flights represent an unrealistic schedule is simply not credible when compared with our performance over the past 15 years,” the airline said. “In 2024, Southwest led the industry by completing more than 99% of its flights without cancelation.”
The Federal Aviation Administration has also chimed in on the airlines’ chronically delayed flights, stating they want to ensure that carriers are complying with federal regulations regarding safety and transportation.
In December 2022, the U.S. Department of Transportation expressed concerns about Southwest’s “unacceptable rate of cancelations” and would examine if the airline is “complying with its customer service plan.” Nearly three years later, the DOT’s findings during their investigation against the airline have prompted enforcement of the chronically delayed flights.