Southwest Airlines has blamed their massive flight cancellations on the winter weather, and Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has promised to hold them accountable, but data from earlier in the year indicates that both parties were aware of potential transportation and computer problems before they happened.
The National Association of Attorneys General sent a
letter in August 2022 to leaders in Congress, warning them that the offices of state attorneys general across the nation have received thousands of complaints from “outraged airline passengers about airline customer service.” The letter asserted the Department of Transporation (DOT) had “failed to respond” to thousands of complaints about various airlines, saying the DOT was “unable or unwilling” to hold the companies accountable.
Among the complaints were passengers’ frustrations about consistent failures to provide credits to those who lost travel opportunities, despite requirements that the companies do so.
The letter went on to say that “federal law places the central responsibility for addressing violations of airline consumer protection with the United States Department of Transportation (US DOT),” and despite the law enforcement offices forwarding the complaints, the DOT had, at that point “failed to respond and to provide appropriate recourse in those cases.”
The attorneys general claimed that both Republican and Democrat presidents have “failed to spur the US DOT to act in a manner that responds effectively to consumer complaints,” saying that this lack of action, “this vacuum of oversight allows airlines to mistreat consumers and leaves consumers without effective redress [and] decreased levels of competition, the ability of the marketplace to punish or reward industry behavior that harms or helps consumers is lessened, increasing the importance of effective enforcement of consumer protection requirements.”
The letter was signed by the attorneys general of 38 states and came just before Buttigieg
appeared on national television to promise that travel conditions will improve by the holidays: In a September appearance on The Late Late Show With James Corden, Buttigieg
said airline travel “is going to get better by the holidays.” He added that “we’re really pressing the airlines to deliver better service.”
Buttigieg also received a
letter from New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, alerting him to “the deeply troubling and escalating pattern of airlines delaying and canceling flights,” especially around holidays. She included a list of possible steps he may take to stop the behavior.
Southwest Airlines responded to The Epoch Times inquiry about their service schedule following the interruption in service, which resulted in more than 12,000 canceled flights, by referencing “current challenges created by Winter Storm Elliott.”
The airline CEO Bob Jordan, however, indicated in a recent
press release that his company believes it can better serve customers by implementing its “plans to invest in tools and technology and processes.” Jordan went on to say, “One of our five-year strategic plan priorities established in 2021 is to modernize the operation, along with a 2022 company focus area of getting back to our historic operational reliability and efficiency.”
Questions have arisen about why these upgrades weren’t already in place, considering that Southwest received $7.2 billion in federal subsidies for payroll and operations since 2020, according to OpenTheBooks.com. The airline recently declared it will resume paying stockholders a quarterly dividend, at an annual cost of
$428 million.
The business made the declaration only a few days after its CEO, who earns
$9 million annually,
acknowledged the airline had lagged in updating its
computer and scheduling systems. That failure contributed to the holiday travel calamity, according to a number of Southwest employees who
attributed the chaos to the company’s “outdated technology.”
Following the company’s massive failure, Buttigieg posted a
video speaking to travelers late on Dec. 29, saying they have been getting “thousands” of complaints from stranded passengers due to the “operational meltdown” of Southwest Airlines.
“If you’re one of those passengers, there’s something I want you to know, which is that the U.S. Department of Transportation has your back. I’m disappointed that Southwest has not done more to proactively communicate with passengers the ways they’re going to take care of you, so I want to make sure you know some of the ways that you’re owed compensation if you have been in this situation since Christmas Eve.
The transportation secretary went on to say that passengers are not only owed refunds if they chose not to travel after their flights were canceled, but also to be compensated if the travelers had to book with another airline, find ground transportation, or invest in basic necessities like food, if they were delayed due to a situation under Southwest’s control.
Buttigieg pointed travelers to the Department of Transportation’s Consumer Complaint
page where a complaint can be filed if an airline does not provide compensation owed to customers. He also called out the airline in a letter obtained by Peter Doocy of Fox News.
“No amount of financial compensation can fully make up for passengers who missed moments with their families that they can never get back—Christmas, birthdays, weddings, and other special events,” Buttigieg
said in the letter to Southwest’s CEO. “That’s why it is so critical for Southwest to begin by reimbursing passengers for those costs that can be measured in dollars [and] cents.”
His video did not reference the August letter from the attorneys general or a second letter signed by 34 attorneys general sent on Dec. 19. The second letter, which was spearheaded by Colorado’s Democrat Attorney General Phil Weiser, pleaded with Buttigieg to “impose significant fines for cancellations and extended delays that are not weather-related or otherwise unavoidable.”
The Department of Transportation did not respond to The Epoch Times before press time.
