Christmas is just six days away, and many of us are making plans to head home for the holidays.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg hopes this week's massive fine for Southwest Airlines will make other airlines more accountable to their customers.
On Monday, Southwest Airlines was ordered to pay $140 million for last year's ten-day holiday meltdown that stranded more than two million travelers. It's the largest airline fine in Department of Transportation history.
Tuesday, Buttigieg says that he wants other air carriers to take note.
"For any airline that is considering delaying or deferring the work it takes, in terms of hiring, staffing, and equipment, to prevent a meltdown, I want them to look at the example of how much Southwest had to pay," Buttigieg said. "$600 million in refunds and reimbursements and $140 million in penalties [is] a very good reason to not let that happen in the first place."
DOT says the Southwest fine is 30 times larger than any previous DOT penalty for consumer protection violations.
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