DOT Sues Southwest Airlines Over Chronic Flight Delays and Fines Frontier

Chicago: So, the Department of Transportation is really cracking down on Southwest Airlines. They just filed a lawsuit against them for selling flights that are always late. Can you believe it?

The DOT claims that during a five-month stretch in 2022, Southwest was responsible for 90% of the delays on certain routes, like between Chicago Midway and Oakland, and Baltimore to Cleveland. That’s a lot of late flights!

And it doesn’t stop there. Frontier Airlines is also in hot water, facing a $650,000 fine for similar issues. Just recently, JetBlue got slapped with a $2 million fine for their chronic delays too.

It’s interesting that the DOT hasn’t explained why they chose to sue Southwest while just fining the others. A Southwest spokesperson expressed disappointment, saying it’s unfair to focus on two flights from over two years ago. They argue that their overall performance has been solid for the last 15 years.

They also pointed out that they’ve flown over 20 million flights without any other issues since the DOT’s policy on chronic delays came into play back in 2009.

This situation is still unfolding, so keep an eye out for updates!