back to article Feds sue Southwest for chronic delays, unrealistic schedules

The Department of Transportation has joined the flurry of last-minute actions by the Biden administration with a lawsuit accusing Southwest Airlines of operating chronically delayed flights.  The lawsuit [PDF], filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California by the Departments of Transportation and …

  1. Jou (Mxyzptlk) Silver badge

    Can we have that for Deutsche Bahn as well?

    I'd love to have the punctuality back Deutsche Bahn had over 30 years ago, before that pseudo-privatization time.

    Situation was: Usually below one minute, quite often below 15 seconds. Even back in around 1965, as we can see in old documentation films which tested that.

    Situation today: The definition of a train being late has been redefined as "at least 16 minutes, below counts as punctual". Should be sued.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    US domestic air travel is all pretty awful when it comes to performance.

    They run those schedules so tight, especially some of the connections. One delay in the system and the whole day is affected.

    Any time I fly domestic US I brace myself for a s**tshow. That said, once in the air and on the way the experience is pretty decent.

  3. Terje

    That's way to lenient!

    I find the definition of chronically late to be exceptionally lenient. 50% more than 30 minutes late. While I do agree there should be some degree of wiggle room, I believe that it should be more like 50% 10-15 minutes if you don't manage that your schedule is clearly not tailored to reality!

    1. DJO Silver badge

      Re: That's way to lenient!

      Headwinds and problems at the destination are hard to allow for.

      Maybe a more useful metric would be to look at the difference between the scheduled departure times and the actual departure times which are more under the control of the airline.

      1. Terje

        Re: That's way to lenient!

        Yes, but if that (Weather and taxi issues) effects you badly enough and often enough that you miss your schedule more than 50% of the time I believe that warrants you changing the schedule to take that into consideration.

        I do agree that departure time is another metric that should be considered, but probably as a separate category, since the only thing a customer really cares about is arrival time.

        1. DJO Silver badge

          Re: That's way to lenient!

          Perhaps "Maybe another useful metric" instead of "Maybe a more useful metric" would have been clearer. If there are regularly "unexpected" delays at either end of the flight then it is 100% down to the airline for not allowing some headroom for unexpected contingencies.

          It's stupid really, if they were to add a bit to the expected flight time they would find themselves getting occasional credit for being early instead of being regularly lambasted for being late. It may cost them a bit of money due to allowing more time for aircraft turnarounds but the PR gain would probably be far greater.

          1. Timo

            Re: That's way to lenient!

            You make a good point, but with the numbers of flights per day and month that Southwest operates one or two chronically late ones might amount to a rounding error.

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  5. Grumpy Fellow

    What's the incentive to do this?

    Just a question: What does an airline gain through having a flight scheduled unrealistically? Why not just schedule it 15 minutes later in the first place and make the customers happy?

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