DOT sues Southwest Airlines over 'chronically delayed flights'

The Department of Transportation filed a lawsuit against Southwest Airlines on Wednesday, accusing the carrier of "illegally operating multiple chronically delayed flights."

The DOT said that it also fined Frontier Airlines up to $650,000 for similarly running several routes that are chronically delayed.

According to the lawsuit, Southwest allegedly ran two routes that were delayed a total of 180 times between April and August 2022, coming out to five straight months of chronic delays. The DOT said it defines a regular commercial flight as "chronically delayed" if it is scheduled to operate at least 10 times a month and arrives more than 30 minutes late at least half of the time.

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

The routes cited in the lawsuit include one between Chicago's Midway International Airport (MDW) and Oakland International Airport (OAK) in California, and a flight between Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI) and Cleveland Hopkins International Airport (CLE). The airline was responsible for more than 90% of the delays on the routes, the DOT said, rather than a cause outside of its control such as inclement weather.

In a statement, Southwest said it was disappointed that DOT chose to file the lawsuit over flights from more than two years ago, and noted that it had not been marked for any previous violations since 2009, when the DOT implemented its "chronically delayed flight" policy.

"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 in its statement. "In 2024, Southwest led the industry by completing more than 99% of its flights without cancellation."

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Frontier was fined for violating the policy, the DOT said, rather than sued. The airline will be required to pay $325,000 for the alleged violations, with an additional $325,000 that would be suspended if the airline does not operate any chronically delayed flights for the next three years.

Earlier this month, the DOT issued a $2 million fine to JetBlue over four chronically delayed flights. It was the first time the agency had fined an airline over the issue.

It's not clear why the DOT is suing Southwest while it fined JetBlue and Frontier. A spokesperson did not immediately reply to TPG's request for more information.

In an interview with TPG last year, Buttigieg said that the agency was pressuring airlines to "prove the realism of their schedules," noting that a carrier could publish scheduled departure and arrival times that it knows it can't actually meet "for reasons of gaining market share or other anti-competitive reasons."

"We have active investigations right now, and are calling on airlines to do the right thing in the first place and not allow there to be reason for suspicion that they are knowingly scheduling flights that they're not prepared to adequately serve," Buttigieg said at the time.

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