On September 19, 2024, a Boeing 737 from Southwest Airlines took off from Los Angeles International Airport, heading to Las Vegas. This image, captured by Kevin Carter, is a testament to the busy skies over Los Angeles, California.
In a notable move this Wednesday, the Department of Transportation (DOT) has filed a lawsuit against Southwest Airlines. The lawsuit accuses the airline of operating flights that were repeatedly delayed. Alongside this legal action, the DOT has imposed a fine on Frontier Airlines for their habitually late arrivals.
This comes on the heels of a recent $2 million fine against JetBlue Airways for similar practices. The current administration, as it approaches its conclusion, has certainly been more proactive in enforcing consumer protection than its predecessors.
According to the DOT, Southwest had flights from Chicago Midway to Oakland and from Baltimore to Cleveland that experienced significant delays nearly 200 times between April and August 2022. The department claims these flights were consistently late for five months straight, with Southwest responsible for more than 90% of the delays.
The DOT has specific criteria for what they consider “chronically delayed”: a flight qualifies if it is operated at least ten times in a month and arrives more than 30 minutes late over half of those times, including cancellations and diversions.
In the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court in Oakland, California, the DOT highlighted, “When an airline is aware that a flight is persistently late, it’s crucial they adjust their schedules accordingly. Southwest, however, has frequently opted not to revise its schedules, continuing to market flights with unfeasible timelines, causing considerable inconvenience for its passengers.”
Southwest expressed disappointment at the legal action, noting, “It’s frustrating that the DOT chose to pursue a lawsuit regarding two flights from more than two years ago.” They emphasized that since the policy on chronically delayed flights was established in 2009, they have successfully operated over 20 million flights without infraction. “To suggest that these two instances reflect an unrealistic schedule is questionable given our performance record over the last 15 years,” the airline asserted.
Meanwhile, budget airline Frontier has been fined $650,000 by the DOT for their delayed flights. However, half of this amount will be suspended if Frontier avoids chronically delayed operations for the next three years. Frontier has opted not to comment on the matter.
