Federal regulators filed a lawsuit against Southwest Airlines on Wednesday, alleging that the carrier deceived thousands of passengers and disrupted their travel plans by operating “chronically delayed” flights.
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“Airlines have a legal obligation to ensure that their flight schedules provide travelers with realistic departure and arrival times,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement announcing the case, filed by the Transportation Department and the Justice Department. “Today’s action sends a message to all airlines that the Department is prepared to go to court to enforce passenger protections.”
The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California is the first time regulators have taken an airline to court over deceptively unrealistic scheduling. In other similar cases, including one this month involving JetBlue Airways, the government reached a settlement.
The Transportation Department’s investigation identified flights on two Southwest routes that were chronically delayed – one that operated between Chicago Midway International Airport and California’s Oakland International Airport and another between Baltimore-Washington International Marshall Airport and Ohio’s Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. The department’s investigation said between April and August 2022, passengers on those routes experienced 180 flight disruptions combined. Each flight was chronically delayed for five straight months, the lawsuit said.
Southwest said it planned to contest the lawsuit.
“Southwest is disappointed that DOT chose to file a lawsuit over two flights that occurred more than two years ago,” the carrier said in a statement. “Any claim that these two flights represent an unrealistic schedule is simply not credible when compared with our performance over the past 15 years.”
Under federal rules, a flight is considered chronically delayed if it operates at least 10 times a month and arrives more than 30 minutes late more than 50 percent of the time.
“When an airline knows that a particular flight is consistently late, it is essential that the airline adjusts its schedule,” according to the government’s suit. “But on many occasions, Southwest has chosen not to make such adjustments, and instead has continued to market its flights using unrealistic schedules. By doing so, Southwest has caused significant harm to its customers.”
In a separate settlement announced Wednesday, the Transportation Department announced it had fined Frontier Airlines $650,000 in civil penalties for also operating multiple chronically delayed flights. Half of that fine will be paid to the U.S. Treasury. Frontier will not have to pay the remaining half if it does not operate any chronically delayed flights in the next three years.
Frontier Airlines declined to comment.
Wednesday’s legal action against Southwest comes after the Transportation Department announced a settlement this month with JetBlue Airways in which the carrier agreed to pay a $2 million penalty for operating chronically delayed flights on a handful of routes in 2022 and 2023.
Though JetBlue did not admit liability for the flights in question, it agreed to settle the matter “to avoid the expense and uncertainty of litigation,” according to a consent order.