USDOT sues Southwest Airways over ‘chronically behind schedule’ flights


America Division of Transportation (USDOT) is suing Southwest Airways for “illegally running more than one chronically behind schedule flights and disrupting passengers’ commute,” according to a press release.

The USDOT’s investigation discovered that “Southwest operated two chronically behind schedule flights — one between Chicago Halfway World Airport and Oakland, Calif, and any other between Baltimore, Md. and Cleveland, Ohio — that ended in 180 flight disruptions for passengers between April and August 2022,” in line with the discharge. “Each and every flight used to be chronically behind schedule for 5 directly months.”

A flight is thought of as chronically behind schedule if “it’s flown a minimum of 10 instances a month and arrives greater than half-hour past due greater than 50 % of the time,” the USDOT says.

“Southwest is dissatisfied that DOT selected to record a lawsuit over two flights that came about greater than two years in the past,” Southwest spokesperson Laura Swift says in a commentary to The Verge. “Since DOT issued its Chronically Behind schedule Flight (CDF) coverage in 2009, Southwest has operated greater than 20 million flights without a different CDF violations. Any declare that those two flights constitute an unrealistic agenda is just no longer credible in comparison with our efficiency during the last 15 years. In 2024, Southwest led the business via finishing greater than 99% of its flights with out cancellation.”

As well as, the USDOT is taking “enforcement motion” towards Frontier Airways for running chronically behind schedule flights. USDOT has fined Frontier $650,000 in civil consequences; america Treasury will likely be paid $325,000, whilst the opposite $325,000 will likely be suspended if Frontier “does no longer perform any chronically behind schedule flights within the subsequent 3 years,” the USDOT says.

Frontier Airways spokesperson Jennifer F. de l. a. Cruz declined to remark.

Previous this month, USDOT introduced a $2 million penalty against JetBlue for running chronically behind schedule flights. The USDOT additionally fined Southwest Airways in 2023 over a vacation meltdown that stranded thousands and thousands in 2022.



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