The US Department of Transportation (DOT) has filed a lawsuit against Southwest Airlines and imposed a fine on Frontier Airlines for operating chronically delayed flights.
On January 15, 2025, the DOT issued a statement saying that operating chronically delayed flights is “an unrealistic scheduling practice” and can “harm both passengers and fair competition across the airline industry.”
“Airlines have a legal obligation to ensure that their flight schedules provide travelers with realistic departure and arrival times,” said Pete Buttigieg, US Transportation Secretary.
The department said the lawsuit alleges that Southwest Airlines illegally operated multiple chronically delayed flights, causing disruption to passengers’ travel. The DOT said it is seeking “maximum civil penalties.” The lawsuit against Southwest was jointly filed with the Department of Justice in the US District Court for the Northern District of California.
The DOT’s investigation found that Southwest operated two chronically delayed flights – one between Chicago Midway International Airport (MDW) and Oakland, Calif, and another between Baltimore, Maryland, and Cleveland, Ohio – that resulted in 180 flight disruptions for passengers between April and August 2022. Each flight was chronically delayed for five straight months
According to the Bureau of Transportation statistics, which analyzed data submitted to the DOT by the airline, Southwest was responsible for more than 90% of the disruptions for the two chronically delayed flights and did not take steps to fix the issue.
The DOT also took enforcement action against Frontier Airlines for operating multiple chronically delayed flights. DOT fined Frontier $650,000 in civil penalties with $325,000 to be paid to the US Treasury. The remaining $325,000 will be suspended if the carrier does not operate any chronically delayed flights in the next three years.
Federal regulations prohibit airlines from promising flight schedules that do not reflect actual departure and arrival times. Unrealistic scheduling is considered “an unfair, deceptive, and anticompetitive practice that disrupts passengers’ travel plans, denies them reliable scheduling information, and allows airlines to unfairly capture business from competitors by misleading consumers”, DOT’s statement read.
Under DOT rules, a flight is chronically delayed if it is flown at least 10 times a month and arrives more than 30 minutes late more than 50% of the time. Cancellations and diversions are included as delays within this calculation.
On January 3, 2025, JetBlue Airways was fined $2 million for continued flight delays across its network. The DOT reported that JetBlue was solely responsible for 70% of its flights that were chronically delayed during the scrutinized period.