• The federal government is fining Southwest Airlines $140 million for last year’s historic, 10-day-long holiday meltdown that stranded more than 2 million travelers.
• The Department of Transportation’s announcement of its largest-ever civil penalty comes about one year after cascading issues at Southwest led to the cancelation of nearly 17,000 flights. Those flights made up nearly half of Southwest’s flight schedule during the busy holiday travel period.
• The agency says it levied the fine “for numerous violations of consumer protection laws during and after the operational failures,” including not communicating with passengers, failing to provide adequate customer service and not refunding passengers quickly enough.

Tagged: Airlines