Government Drops Lawsuit Against Southwest Over Chronic Delays
The lawsuit, filed by the USDOT under Biden, alleged Southwest operated two routes with unrealistic schedules and chronic delays
Photo: Southwest Airlines hub at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood. Courtesy of Southwest Airlines / Stephen M. Keller
The Trump administration has dropped a lawsuit, filed in the waning days of former President Biden’s mandate, that accused Southwest Airlines of setting unrealistic schedules and operating chronically delayed flights in 2022.
On Friday, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) filed paperwork requesting that the lawsuit be dismissed, but didn’t explain why.
Looking Back: Southwest Under Fire
The DOT, under former President Biden, filed the lawsuit against the budget carrier in a California district court just days before Trump’s inauguration in January.
The department alleged that Southwest sold tickets for flights it knew had unrealistic schedules, leaving travelers facing delays. It sought “maximum civil penalties” from the airline.
The two routes in question are between Chicago Midway (MDW) and Oakland International Airport (OAK) and between Baltimore (BWI) and Cleveland International Airport (CLE). Between April and August 2022, flights on the two routes were delayed a total of 180 times.
Photo: Courtesy of David Syphers / Unsplash
Both routes met the USDOT’s definition of chronically delayed—a flight that is flown at least 10 times per month and arrives more than 30 minutes late at least 50 percent of the time—for five straight months.
“Airlines have a legal obligation to ensure that their flight schedules provide travelers with realistic departure and arrival times,” then Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in January.
Under Biden, the DOT fined JetBlue and Frontier Airlines $2 million and $650,000, respectively, for similarly operating chronically delayed flights, taking a tough stance on deceptive flight schedules that it says inconvenience travelers.
The administration fiercely advocated for air travelers, taking on airlines over hidden fees, mergers, and partnerships it said violated antitrust laws. Under new regulations introduced by Biden, airlines must now issue automatic cash refunds to travelers for inconveniences such as cancellations or baggage delays, guarantee families with children seats together without additional fees, and do more to help passengers traveling with wheelchairs.
Trump takes a softer stance on airlines
The Trump administration has been friendlier towards airlines, relaxing antitrust enforcement and soft-peddling consumer protections. The dropped lawsuit against Southwest may be part of this trend, although the USDOT hasn’t clarified its reasoning.
Southwest has spoken, however, and welcomed the dismissal of the lawsuit, which follows discussions with Trump’s Department of Justice (DOJ) in March.
Photo: Courtesy of Denver International Airport.
“The two flights at issue occurred years ago when the industry faced unprecedented challenges from the Covid-19 pandemic and were delayed due to issues outside of Southwest’s control in numerous cases,” the airline said in a statement. “Since the pandemic, we have made significant investments in our operation, which in 2024 provided our customers with best-in-class operational reliability.”
In 2023, Southwest paid a record $140 million fine levied by the DOT for failings during the 2022 holiday travel season. Struggling to recover from bad weather, the airline canceled nearly 17,000 flights over Christmas, stranding two million passengers.
Since then, the airline has pledged $1.3 trillion to upgrade its IT systems, including outdated crew scheduling software that was implicated in the holiday meltdown.
