Southwest and Frontier Penalized as DOT Cracks Down on Chronically Delayed Flights

The Department of Transportation announced on Wednesday that it is suing Southwest Airlines over chronically delayed flights. In addition to this, Frontier was also penalized by the agency for the same infraction. 

Transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement, “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.” Buttigieg added, “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.”

According to the DOT, Southwest had two routes that experienced 180 flight disruptions from April to August 2022. These are flights that operated between Chicago Midway International Airport and Oakland, California, and between Baltimore and Cleveland.

In the lawsuit, it said that Southwest was at fault for more than 90% of the delays in those routes. The DOT said that its rules “provide airlines adequate time to fix their schedule after a flight becomes chronically delayed in order to avoid illegal unrealistic scheduling.” However, Southwest failed to address the problem. 

Delayed Flights and Unrealistic Scheduling

Unrealistic scheduling was labeled by the DOT as “unfair, deceptive, and anticompetitive.” The agency believes that it misleads customers. In the agency’s press release, it said, “Continuing to market a flight that has been chronically delayed for more than four consecutive months is one form of unrealistic scheduling.”

Chronically delayed flights occur when flown 10 plus times monthly, arriving 30 plus minutes late over 50% of the time. It added, “cancellations and diversions are included as delays within this calculation.”

The DOT vows to seek “maximum civil penalties” against Southwest. According to the Department of Justice, Southwest is facing at least 58 violations of DOT’s unrealistic scheduling rule. Each case carries a penalty of $37,377. This means the penalty could balloon up to $2.2 million. 

Aside from Southwest, Frontier Airlines is also facing enforcement action. Frontier is being fined for $650,000. However, Frontier is only required to pay $325,000 immediately, and the rest is forgiven. But this has a catch. Frontier should operate with no chronically delayed flights in the next three years. 

Southwest’s Disappointment in the Lawsuit

While Frontier didn’t comment on the sanction, Southwest announced that it is disappointed in the lawsuit.

Southwest’s statement said, “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.” It added,  “In 2024, Southwest led the industry by completing more than 99% of its flights without cancellation.”