The U.S. Transportation Department said Wednesday it is investigating whether Southwest Airlines deceived customers by knowingly scheduling more flights in late December than it realistically could handle.
The department said that scheduling too many flights would be considered an unfair and deceptive practice under federal law.
The Transportation Department added that it will hold Southwest accountable if the airline fails to follow federal rules about refunds and reimbursing customers for expenses when flights are canceled. The agency said it will"leverage the full extent of its investigative and enforcement power" to protect consumers.
"Our systems and processes became stressed while working to recover from multiple days of flight cancellations across 50 airports in the wake of an unprecedented storm," Southwest said in a statement. The airline pledged to cooperate with any government inquiries and is"focused on learning from this event" and reducing the risk of a repeat.
Dallas-based Southwest eventually resorting to cutting its schedule by about two-thirds to reset crews and planes, which it did successfully.
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