DALLAS — Southwest Airlines will pay a $35 million fine as part of a $140 million settlement to resolve a federal investigation into a debacle in December 2022, when the U.S. airline canceled thousands of flights and stranded more than 2 million travelers. during the holidays.
Most of the settlement will go toward compensating future passengers, which the U.S. Department of Transportation sees as an incentive for Southwest to avoid repeating last winter’s disaster.
The government said it is the largest penalty it has imposed on an airline for violating consumer protection laws.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said the deal demonstrates his agency’s determination to make airlines take care of their passengers.
For its part, Southwest said it was “grateful to have reached a pro-consumer agreement” that gives the airline credit for the compensation it already provided to customers. The airline added that it “has learned from the event and can now focus on the future.”
The penalty stems from nearly 17,000 canceled flights a year ago, which began when a winter storm paralyzed Southwest operations in Denver and Chicago and then escalated when a system for rescheduling crew schedules couldn’t keep up.
Even before the deal, the country’s fourth-largest airline by revenue revealed that the crisis cost it more than $1.1 billion in refunds, additional expenses and lost ticket sales over several months.
The government stressed that Southwest “violated the law on numerous occasions,” including by failing to help customers who were stranded at airports and hotels, or to find other flights.
Southwest also failed to keep its customers informed about canceled and delayed flights. Some said they never received a notice by email or text message and were unable to access the airline’s website.
The government also accused the company of not providing refunds quickly enough, other customers simply did not receive the money or were refunded incompletely.
Source: AP
