This action follows recent fines against JetBlue and Frontier Airlines for similar violations.
The U.S. Department of Transportation has announced a lawsuit against Southwest Airlines, alleging that the carrier “illegally operated multiple chronically delayed flights” over a period of four months in the summer of 2022.
The lawsuit comes just days after the DOT and JetBlue Airways agreed to a $2 million fine for chronically delayed flights. As part of the announcement of the suit against Southwest, DOT also announced it had fined Frontier Airlines $650,000 for operating chronically late flights.
In both the JetBlue and Frontier Airlines cases, the DOT issued a consent order, which is essentially a settling out of court. In a consent order, airlines typically agree to pay a fine and promise to discontinue the behavior without admitting wrongdoing. If an airline doesn’t agree to DOT’s assessment of a situation, or they parties don’t reach an agreement, the DOT can choose to sue.
The lawsuit was filed on Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Unlike a consent order, a lawsuit could result in a legal judgment determining whether—in the eyes of the U.S. District Court—Southwest violated the law.
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In the suit, the DOT alleges that Southwest knew that two of its flights during the summer of 2022 were consistently operating behind schedule, but did not adjust the schedule to correct the issues. The suit involves a pair of Southwest flights from Chicago to Oakland, and from Baltimore to Cleveland.
The DOT alleges that Southwest violated federal law prohibiting “unfair or deceptive practices” by unrealistically scheduling flights. The agency is seeking “maximum civil penalties” against the carrier, up to $37,377 for each flight meeting the definition of chronically delayed.
Southwest issued a statement to the Associated Press in response to the lawsuit, saying that its flights largely operated on-time, and the flights in question were an extraordinary exception.
“Since DOT issued its Chronically Delayed Flight (CDF) policy in 2009, Southwest has operated more than 20 million flights with no other CDF violations. Any claim that these two flights represent an unrealistic schedule is simply not credible when compared with our performance over the past 15 years,” the company said. “In 2024, Southwest led the industry by completing more than 99% of its flights without cancellation.”
To qualify as a Chronically Delayed Flight, a flight must operate more than 10 times in a given month, and more than half of the flights flown arrived more than 30 minutes late. Cancelled flights are counted as delayed flights.
The future progression of the DOT’s lawsuit, however, is uncertain. Presumptive Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy appeared on Fox News during Southwest’s December 2022 operational difficulties to criticize current Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s promises to investigate the airline’s response, suggesting that market forces would drive the airline to improve their operational performance—not a DOT investigation, suggesting that enforcement actions could be a issued less frequently once the DOT leadership changes are complete. The incoming Transportation Secretary could also order that the lawsuit against Southwest be dropped.
The DOT ultimately issued a record $140 Million penalty against Southwest for the disruption in December 2023. That penalty was issued as part of a consent order, which Southwest agreed to settle without admitting any violation of the law.
For overall operations in 2023, the latest year for which full-year data is available, Southwest flew 77.25% of flights on-time, improving from 73.18% for 2022, and ranking 5th behind Delta, Alaska, American, and United; and ranking ahead of Hawaiian, Allegiant, Spirit, JetBlue, and Frontier. Southwest flew just over 1.4 million flights in 2023, ranking third behind Delta and American including those carrier’s branded codeshare networks.
