Southwest Airlines’ holiday meltdown brings on federal investigation

A Southwest Airlines jet on the tarmac at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in 2020. Southwest is struggling to stabilize its operations after a winter storm caused a backlog in travel, mass flight cancellations and delays at major airports. (Credit: Amna Ijaz/The Texas Tribune)

Dallas-based Southwest Airlines faces a federal investigation into whether it violated its own legally required customer service plan amid a blizzard of flight cancellations that ruined plans and angered travelers over the Christmas holiday.

In a statement late Monday, officials at the U.S. Department of Transportation called the service meltdown, which resulted in the cancellation or delay of most of the carrier’s flights over the holiday weekend, “disproportionate and unacceptable.”