DOT Levies $1.6 Million in Fines Against Southwest Airlines for January 2014 Tarmac Delays

iStock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Department of Transportation on Thursday announced $1.6 million in fines to be levied against Southwest Airlines for violating tarmac delay rules.

The government agency said in a news release that the airline “failed to offer passengers on 16 aircraft delayed at Chicago Midway International Airport the opportunity to deplane within three hours of arrival” in a series of incidents in January 2014. Department of Transportation rules mandate that airlines may not allow tarmac delays of over three hours on domestic flights without providing passengers the opportunity to deplane. “Airline passengers have rights,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in a statement, “and the Department’s tarmac delay rules are meant to prevent passengers from being stuck on an aircraft on the ground for hours on end.”

The DOT allows exceptions to the three-hour rule, but only for safety, security and air traffic control-related reasons.

On Jan. 2 and Jan. 3, 2014, Southwest allegedly experienced lengthy delays at the Chicago airport as well as a “malfunctioning of its crew scheduling system and an unexpected shortage of staff.” Those issues inhibited the carrier’s ability to clear aircraft from Southwest’s gates in a timely manner to accommodate arriving flights. Combined with a “severe winter weather event,” the delays lasted over the three-hour limit.

The $1.6 million fine is the largest civil penalty assessed to a carrier for violating tarmac delay rules.

Southwest released a statement on the fine on Thursday, saying that during that evening, “the airfield at Midway became congested with aircraft from cancelled and outbound flights,” and despite their employees “[working] tirelessly to get arriving aircraft to gates as quickly as possible, ultimately, our efforts fell short in the face of challenging operational conditions.”

Following an internal review, Southwest says it has made “significant investments…to prevent recurrences,” and that while it is “disappointed that the government would seek additional money, after the enormous penalties imposed on Southwest by Mother Nature during the January 2014 winter storms,” it “appreciate[s] the Department of Transportation giving Southwest credit for the substantial and costly remedial steps the airline voluntarily took” on its own.

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