Feds sue Southwest for chronic delays, unrealistic schedules

The Department of Transportation has joined the flurry of last-minute actions by the Biden administration with a lawsuit accusing Southwest Airlines of operating chronically delayed flights. 

The lawsuit [PDF], filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California by the Departments of Transportation and Justice yesterday, doesn't accuse Southwest of widespread delays across its network. The suit focuses on two particular regular flights it said were chronically delayed for five straight months, leading to 180 flight disruptions and multiple violations of federal regulations that prohibit airlines from promising schedules that don't reflect realistic departure and arrival times. 

"Airlines have a legal obligation to ensure that their flight schedules provide travelers with realistic departure and arrival times," Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg said. "Today's action sends a message to all airlines that the Department is prepared to go to court in order to enforce passenger protections."

Chronically delayed flights, per the DoT, are any flown at least ten times a month that arrive more than 30 minutes late more than 50 percent of the time, with cancellations and diversions factored in as well. 

The two flights - one between Chicago and Oakland, California, and a second between Baltimore, Maryland and Cleveland, Ohio - were determined to have been chronically delayed between April and August 2022 after a review of data provided to the DoT's Bureau of Transportation Statistics. 

According to the lawsuit, Flight 1029 from Chicago to Oakland arrived late 19 out of 25 times it was flown in April 2022 alone, with an average delay of over an hour. Over the following months, the flight continued to arrive late more than half the time, with the average delay exceeding one hour. 

"Southwest did not adjust the schedule; instead, it continued to market the flight with an unrealistic schedule," the lawsuit contends. 

The Baltimore-to-Cleveland flight faced similar delays, being late more than half the time for "at least five consecutive months, with an average monthly delay as high as 96 minutes," the suit alleged. 

"The Bureau of Transportation Statistics estimates, based on data submitted to DOT by Southwest, that the airline was responsible for more than 90 percent of the disruptions for the two chronically delayed flights," the DoT said in a press release.

The DoT said it's pursuing the maximum possible financial penalty for the two chronically delayed flights. According to the lawsuit, Southwest could face civil penalties of up to $37,377 per violation for engaging in unfair or deceptive practices and unfair methods of competition.

It's not clear how many total violations the DoT is going to try sticking on Southwest. The airline in October reported a net income of $67 million for its third quarter of 2024.

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"Southwest is disappointed that DOT chose to file a lawsuit over two flights that occurred more than two years ago,"  the airline told us. "Any claim that these two flights represent an unrealistic schedule is simply not credible when compared with our performance over the past 15 years."

Southwest added that, in 2024 it completed more than 99 percent of its flights "without cancellation," but didn't respond to additional questions about its delay rate last year. 

The Department of Transportation previously fined Southwest $140 million for a massive IT outage that stranded travelers over the 2023 holiday season. Of that, $35 million was paid to the US Treasury, with the rest credited or waived as part of passenger compensation requirements.

In addition to the Southwest lawsuit, the DoT said it also took an enforcement action against US budget carrier Frontier Airlines for operating several chronically delayed flights of its own. Frontier was fined $650,000, with $325,000 to be paid to the Treasury and the remaining $325,000 suspended, provided the airline does not operate any additional chronically delayed flights over the next three years. ®