WASHINGTON- The US Department of Transportation (DOT) filed a lawsuit against Southwest Airlines (WN) on January 15, 2025, targeting the carrier’s practice of operating chronically delayed flights.
The legal action seeks maximum civil penalties for violations that disrupt passenger travel and distort airline industry competition.
Photo: Aero Icarus | FlickrSouthwest Sued for Flight Delays
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg emphasized the Department’s commitment to protecting passenger rights and ensuring market fairness in air travel.
He stated that airlines must provide realistic flight schedules to travelers, adding that this lawsuit demonstrates DOT’s willingness to pursue legal action to enforce passenger protections.
The Department’s enforcement efforts extend beyond Southwest Airlines. In a parallel action, DOT imposed a $650,000 civil penalty on Frontier Airlines (F9) for similar chronic delay violations.
Frontier must pay $325,000 to the U.S. Treasury immediately, while the remaining amount remains suspended, contingent on the airline maintaining delay-free operations over the next three years.
Photo: Southwest Airlines Strict Oversight
The Department of Transportation maintains strict regulations regarding airline scheduling practices, defining clear parameters for what constitutes illegal flight operations.
Airlines face legal consequences when they advertise schedules that deviate from actual arrival and departure times, as these practices create unfair market advantages and disrupt passenger travel plans.
Federal guidelines specifically classify a flight as chronically delayed when it operates a minimum ten times monthly and experiences delays exceeding 30 minutes in more than half its operations. The regulations incorporate flight cancellations and diversions into this delay calculation, establishing comprehensive criteria for monitoring airline performance.
Southwest Airlines violated these regulations by operating two persistently delayed routes between April and August 2022. The first route connected Chicago Midway International Airport to Oakland, California, while the second operated between Baltimore, Maryland, and Cleveland, Ohio. These operations resulted in 180 distinct flight disruptions, with both routes experiencing chronic delays for five consecutive months.
The Bureau of Transportation Statistics revealed Southwest’s responsibility for over 90% of these disruptions, based on data the airline submitted to DOT.
Federal regulations provide airlines sufficient time to correct their schedules after flights begin showing chronic delay patterns. However, Southwest failed to implement necessary schedule adjustments for these problematic routes.
The Department of Justice has joined DOT in filing this lawsuit, submitting their case to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
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