Transportation Department sues Southwest Airlines over alleged 'chronically delayed' flight routes

The Department of Transportation (DOT) on Wednesday sued Southwest Airlines over two allegedly "chronically delayed" flight routes that resulted in the disruption of over 180 flights in 2022. 

The DOT defines "chronically delayed" as flights that are flown at least 10 times a month and arrives late more than 50% of the time, according to its rules. Each flight on the routes in question was allegedly delayed for five straight months, and the airline was allegedly responsible for 90% of them, per CNN.

The department filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, and seeks "maximum civil penalties." The lawsuit focuses on a route between Chicago and Oakland, California, and a route between Baltimore and Cleveland.

“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 lawsuit also alleged that the airline failed to fix its schedule for the routes, which harmed passengers.  

The airline said that it was "disappointed" the lawsuit was filed, and that it has since fixed the issues.

“Since DOT issued its Chronically Delayed Flight policy in 2009, Southwest has operated more than 20 million flights with no other CDF violations,” Southwest said in a statement. “Any claim that these two flights represent an unrealistic schedule is simply not credible when compared with our performance over the past 15 years.”

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.