The federal government issued a $140 million fine against Southwest Airlines over the 2022 holiday-season meltdown that stranded more than 2 million passengers.
The federal government has hit Southwest Airlines with a historic fine, one year after an operational failure disrupted tens of thousands of flights and stranded millions of customers during the 2022 holiday-travel season.
The Department of Transportation announced Monday that it is issuing a $140 million civil penalty against the airline, a sanction the agency says is 30 times larger than any past DOT penalty for “consumer-protection violations.” The amount is on top of an additional $600 million worth of reimbursements, in the form of food, lodging, and refunds, that Southwest has made to customers at the department’s urging.
