The Transportation Division is stepping up enforcement of persistent flight delays with a lawsuit towards Southwest Airways and a wonderful towards Frontier Airways.
The company mentioned the U.S. District Court docket lawsuit it filed in California on Wednesday alleges that Southwest illegally operated chronically delayed flights and disrupted passengers’ journey plans. It says it is searching for “most civil penalties.”
“Airways have a authorized obligation to make sure that their flight schedules present vacationers with reasonable departure and arrival instances,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg mentioned in a press release. “As we speak’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 Transportation Division mentioned its investigation discovered that Dallas-based Southwest operated two chronically delayed flights – one between Chicago Halfway Worldwide Airport and Oakland, California, and one other between Baltimore, Maryland and Cleveland, Ohio.
Each flights have been chronically delayed for 5 straight months and collectively resulted in 180 flight disruptions for passengers between April and August 2022, the company mentioned.
In a press release, Southwest mentioned it was dissatisfied that the company targeted on flights from greater than two years in the past and pointed as a substitute to its long-term file.
“Since DOT issued its Chronically Delayed Flight (CDF) coverage in 2009, Southwest has operated greater than 20 million flights with no different CDF violations. Any declare that these two flights signify an unrealistic schedule is just not credible compared with our efficiency over the previous 15 years,” the corporate mentioned. “In 2024, Southwest led the business by finishing greater than 99% of its flights with out cancellation.”
The division fined Frontier Airways $650,000 in civil penalties, with $325,000 to be paid to the U.S. Treasury and the remaining $325,000 to be suspended if the provider doesn’t function any chronically delayed flights within the subsequent three years. Frontier, based mostly in Denver, declined to remark.
The announcement comes lower than two weeks after the Transportation Division fined JetBlue $2 million for power delays, the primary time it imposed a penalty for lateness on particular routes. The company cited JetBlue’s power delays on “unrealistic scheduling.” JetBlue then mentioned the federal government, which operates the air visitors management system, shares the blame for late flights.
Aviation knowledge supplier Cirium mentioned in a report launched this month that Southwest ranked fifth among the many 10 North American airways it evaluated for his or her on-time efficiency, with 77.8% of arrivals and a bit of beneath 77% of exits final yr going down in a well timed approach. By comparability, top-ranked Delta Air Strains scored 83.5% for arrivals and 83.7% for departures.
Final yr, federal regulators elevated their scrutiny of Southwest Airways after a collection of incidents, together with flying at very low altitudes whereas nonetheless miles away from an airport. The Federal Aviation Administration mentioned in July it needed to make sure the provider was complying with federal security laws. The FAA declined to supply particulars however famous that it frequently adjusts oversight of airways based mostly on danger.
