The Division of Transportation filed a lawsuit in opposition to Southwest Airways on Wednesday, accusing the provider of “illegally working a number of chronically delayed flights.”
The DOT stated that it additionally fined Frontier Airways as much as $650,000 for equally operating a number of routes which are chronically delayed.
In response to the lawsuit, Southwest allegedly ran two routes that have been delayed a complete of 180 occasions between April and August 2022, popping out to 5 straight months of power delays. The DOT stated it defines a daily business flight as “chronically delayed” whether it is scheduled to function at the very least 10 occasions a month and arrives greater than half-hour late at the very least half of the time.
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“Airways have a authorized obligation to make sure that their flight schedules present vacationers with lifelike departure and arrival occasions,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg stated in a press release. “Immediately’s motion sends a message to all airways that the Division is ready to go to court docket to be able to implement passenger protections.”
The routes cited within the lawsuit embrace one between Chicago’s Halfway Worldwide Airport (MDW) and Oakland Worldwide Airport (OAK) in California, and a flight between Baltimore/Washington Worldwide Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI) and Cleveland Hopkins Worldwide Airport (CLE). The airline was answerable for greater than 90% of the delays on the routes, the DOT stated, reasonably than a trigger outdoors of its management corresponding to inclement climate.
In a press release, Southwest stated it was upset that DOT selected to file the lawsuit over flights from greater than two years in the past, and famous that it had not been marked for any earlier violations since 2009, when the DOT carried out its “chronically delayed flight” coverage.
“Any declare that these two flights characterize an unrealistic schedule is just not credible in comparison with our efficiency over the previous 15 years,” Southwest added in its assertion. “In 2024, Southwest led the trade by finishing greater than 99% of its flights with out cancellation.”
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Frontier was fined for violating the coverage, the DOT stated, reasonably than sued. The airline will probably be required to pay $325,000 for the alleged violations, with an extra $325,000 that may be suspended if the airline doesn’t function any chronically delayed flights for the subsequent three years.
Earlier this month, the DOT issued a $2 million tremendous to JetBlue over 4 chronically delayed flights. It was the primary time the company had fined an airline over the difficulty.
It isn’t clear why the DOT is suing Southwest whereas it fined JetBlue and Frontier. A spokesperson didn’t instantly reply to TPG’s request for extra data.
In an interview with TPG final yr, Buttigieg stated that the company was pressuring airways to “show the realism of their schedules,” noting {that a} provider may publish scheduled departure and arrival occasions that it is aware of it may well’t really meet “for causes of gaining market share or different anti-competitive causes.”
“Now we have energetic investigations proper now, and are calling on airways to do the proper factor within the first place and never enable there to be cause for suspicion that they’re knowingly scheduling flights that they are not ready to adequately serve,” Buttigieg stated on the time.
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