The US government fined Southwest Airlines Co. $1.6 million on Thursday, Jan. 15, in what it claimed was the “biggest civil penalty levied against an airline” for violating regulations barring long waits for passengers in planes on the runway.
The Transportation Department said Southwest failed to abide by the rules last January, when 16 of its aircraft were delayed on the tarmac at Chicago Midway International Airport.
Passengers on those planes were not given the chance to get off after a record three hours, and the airline did not have enough staff in place to avoid the delays, the report said.
“We have aggressively enforced, and will continue to aggressively enforce, our tarmac delay rule to ensure carriers have adequate resources to minimize passengers’ exposure to lengthy tarmac delays,” said Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx in a statement.
Southwest pointed to severe weather in the incident, which they claim caused the delays.
“We are disappointed that the government would seek additional money, after the enormous penalties imposed on Southwest by Mother Nature during the January 2014 winter storms,” the airline said, adding that the department did credit it for taking voluntary precautions to fix its operations before issuing the order.
Federal rules adopted in 2009 bar airlines from holding passengers on a runway for more than three hours without offering them a chance to leave, with exceptions for safety and security.
The $1.6 million penalty is the largest to date out of the 17 such fines it has issued, the Transportation Department said.
(With reports from NBC News)
