Skip to main content

Southwest Airlines hit with huge fine for Christmas IT fiasco

The US Department of Transport (DoT) has revealed details of an eye-watering $140 million fine facing Southwest Airlines following its catastrophic IT outage over Christmas 2022.

The DoT says that the civil penalty, which is thirty times larger than any other previous DoT penalty for consumer protection violations, is the result of “numerous violations of consumer protection laws.”

Two million passengers and 16,900 flights were cancelled during the Christmas and New Year period last year after Southwest Airlines experienced the outage.

Southwest Airlines outage

The trouble came as the Texas-headquartered airline was forced to reschedule flights in the wake of the December 21 storm, which lasted until December 26. By December 27, it was revealed that the company’s operational systems were struggling to keep up with the large number of rescheduled flights, causing headaches for some passengers into the early days of January 2023.

Together with more than $600 million in refunds and reimbursements to passengers who faced disruptions during the “meltdown,” Southwest Airlines will have paid in excess of $750 million for this incident.

US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg commented: “Today’s action sets a new precedent and sends a clear message: if airlines fail their passengers, we will use the full extent of our authority to hold them accountable.”

The DoT said that the fine, which comes almost 12 months after the chaos first began, is based on the examination of “tens of thousands of pages of documents” as well as “several multi-day, in-person audits” and visits to Southwest’s Dallas HQ.

The Department of Transport was particularly concerned that Southwest Airlines failed to provide adequate customer service assistance, timely flight status notifications, and refunds in a prompt and proper manner.

Moving forward, the DoT has ordered Southwest to set aside $90 million in vouchers to cover similar events in the future. TechRadar Pro has asked Southwest Airlines for a comment on the latest fine, but we did not receive an immediate response.

More from TechRadar Pro



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Windows Copilot leak suggests deeper assimilation with Windows 11 features

Key Windows 11 features may soon be customizable as Microsoft further integrates its Windows Copilot AI assistant into the operating system. This tidbit comes from tech news site Windows Latest , which claims to have discovered new .json (JavaScript Object Notation) files within recent preview builds of Windows 11. These files apparently hint at future upgrades for the desktop AI assistant. For example, a “TaskManagerService-ai-plugin.json” was found which is supposedly a “plugin for Task Manager integration”. If this ever comes out, it could give users the ability to “monitor or close running apps using” Copilot. In total, six are currently tested and they affect various aspects of Windows 11. Next, there is an “AccessbilityTools-ai-plugin.json” that gives Copilot a way to “control accessibility [tools]. This would make it "easier for those with [a] disability to navigate through the system.” Third is “ai-plugin-WindowsSettings.json” for controlling important Windows 11 set...
Post a Comment
Read more

Google Chrome releases security fix for this major flaw, so update now

Google says it has fixed a high-severity flaw in its Chrome browser which is currently being exploited by threat actors in the wild.  In a security advisory , the company described the flaw being abused and urged the users to apply the fix immediately.  "Google is aware that an exploit for CVE-2023-2033 exists in the wild," the advisory reads. Automatic updates The zero-day in question is a confusion weakness vulnerability in the Chrome V8 JavaScript engine, the company said. Usually, this type of flaw can be used to crash the browser, but in this case it can also be used to run arbitrary code on compromised endpoints.  The flaw was discovered by Clement Lecigne from the Google Threat Analysis Group (TAG). Usually, TAG works on finding flaws abused by nation-states, or state-sponsored threat actors. There is no word on who the threat actors abusing this flaw are, though. Read more > Patch Google Chrome now to fix this emergency security flaw > Emergency...
Post a Comment
Read more

Samsung's ViewFinity S9 may be the monitor creatives have been searching for

Originally revealed during CES 2023 , Samsung has finally launched its ViewFinity S9 5K monitor after nine long months of waiting.  According to the announcement, the ViewFinity S9 is the company’s first-ever 5K resolution (5,120 x 2880 pixels) IPS display aimed primarily at creatives. IPS stands for in-plane switching , a form of LED tech offering some of the best color output and viewing angles on the market. This quality is highlighted by the fact that the 27-inch screen supports 99 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut plus delivers 600 nits of brightness.  Altogether, these deliver great picture quality made vibrant by saturated colors and dark shadows. The cherry on top for the ViewFinity S9 is a Matte Display coating to “drastically [reduce] light reflections.”  As a direct rival to the Apple Studio Display , the monitor is an alternative for creative professionals looking for options. It appears Samsung has done its homework as the ViewFinity S9 addresses some of...
Post a Comment
Read more