Yahoo Autos The Feds Think Southwest Scheduled Too Many Flights During 2022's Travel Meltdown
The Southwest travel drama at the end of 2022 took place just over a month ago, but the airline is still feeling the ripple effects from thousands of canceled flights. Customers and the government alike want answers about just what went wrong. Now, as The Dallas Morning News reports, the Department of Transportation is investigating Southwest to see if the airline over-scheduled flights during the 2022 holiday season. The airline maintains that its cancellations were due to weather and technological issues.
The agency has already been investing the airline over the flight cancellations and ensuing chaos in December 2022, so this look into scheduling is an extension of an ongoing investigation. Basically, DOT believes that Southwest scheduled so many flights that its ability to actually field them all became “unrealistic,” as a spokesperson for the agency told The Morning News:
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DOT is also probing whether Southwest executives engaged in unrealistic scheduling of flights which under federal law is considered an unfair and deceptive practice. DOT will leverage the full extent of its investigative and enforcement power to ensure consumers are protected.
Southwest is pushing back, saying that a combination of cold weather at various airports and over-taxed internal systems was to blame for the cancellations, as a spokesperson for Southwest pointed out: