AARP Hearing Center
In the wake of Southwest Airlines’ operational meltdown during the 2022 holiday travel season, future travelers will benefit from the airline’s civil penalty with the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT).
The airline is required to allot $90 million to compensate passengers in the form of vouchers of at least $75 if they are impacted in the next few years by cancellations or delays within Southwest’s control.
The settlement, announced Dec. 18, stems from travel nightmares experienced by Southwest passengers during the December holiday season last year. After several major winter storms caused travel headaches across the country, other airlines were able to recover fairly quickly – but Southwest’s widespread cancellations stretched out for days. Before the situation was finally resolved, Southwest had canceled nearly 17,000 flights, leaving more than two million passengers stranded.
The airline was widely criticized for both the system failures that caused the situation to occur and the way in which it handled the backlog of cancellations and stranded passengers.
In a statement released Dec. 18, the DOT said it determined Southwest violated numerous consumer protection laws, including by failing to provide sufficient customer service, failing to alert customers in a timely manner about delays or cancellations and failing to quickly provide refunds.
The “action sets a new precedent and sends a clear message: If airlines fail their passengers, we will use the full extent of our authority to hold them accountable,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in the statement. “Taking care of passengers is not just the right thing to do — it’s required, and this penalty should put all airlines on notice to take every step possible to ensure that a meltdown like this never happens again.”