U.S. Dept. of Transportation sues Southwest Airlines over chronic flight delays

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Transportation is suing Dallas-based Southwest Airlines over chronic flight delays and disrupting passenger travel plans.

Southwest Airlines says the delays and disruptions happened more than two years ago. Still, the lawsuit could impact the airline's reputation and force changes that could impact passengers. 

What we know:

The Department of Transportation said the airline offered two flights – one between Chicago Midway International Airport and Oakland, California, and another between Baltimore and Cleveland, Ohio – that were late for five straight months between April and August 2022.

The end result was 180 flight disruptions for passengers.

The agency said Southwest was given "adequate time" to fix the flight delays but the chronically delayed flights were not fixed.

What does chronically delayed mean?

A flight is considered chronically delayed if it is flown at least 10 times a month and arrives more than 30 minutes late more than 50 percent of the time.

Federal regulations prohibit airlines from promising flight schedules that do not reflect actual departure and arrival times.

What they're saying:

"As part of our commitment to supporting passenger rights and fairness in the market for airline travel, we are suing Southwest Airlines for disrupting passengers’ travel with unlawful chronic flight delays," U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said. "Airlines have a legal obligation to ensure that their flight schedules provide travelers with realistic departure and arrival times. Today's action sends a message to all airlines that the Department is prepared to go to court in order to enforce passenger protections."

By the numbers:

Court documents show the flights between Chicago and Oakland were more than 30 minutes late 19 out of 25 flights in April 2022, 16 out of 27 flights in May 2022, 19 out of 26 flights in June 2022 and 17 out of 26 flights in July 2022.

The flights between Baltimore and Cleveland were more than 30 minutes late during 22 of 26 flights in April 2022, 19 of 27 flights in May 2022, 19 of 29 flights in June 2022 and 17 of 31 flights in July 2022.

The Department of Transportation also fined Frontier Airlines $650,000 for operating chronically late flights. The airline can keep $325,000 if they do not have any chronically delayed flights in the next three years.

The agency is seeking the maximum civil penalty for Southwest Airlines.

Southwest Responds to Lawsuit

The other side:

In a statement, Southwest said it was disappointed that the agency focused on flights from more than two years ago and pointed instead to its long-term record.

"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."

Big picture view:

Mike Davis is an economics expert at Southern Methodist University. 

"The dollar amount of this penalty is not anything that's going to be a serious threat to Southwest Airlines," he said.

Davis believes the Dallas-based airline should be more concerned about how this will affect its reputation.

"The airlines, their reputations. All of them, but maybe especially Southwest. The last few months have been kind of battered," he said.

Davis says passengers could see the impact of the lawsuit by increased ticket prices or a limit on the number of flights available. 

"Southwest could make its flights come on time more often, but that costs the airline a lot of money," he said. "Southwest is not in a position to absorb a lot of extra costs right now. So if costs go up, that's going to result in higher airfares." 

What's next:

There’s no timeframe for when DOT officials will meet with Southwest to discuss the allegations.