As part of a settlement with the Department of Transportation resulting from the 2022 holiday debacle, Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) will now provide $75 vouchers to passengers who arrived at their final destination 3 hours or more later due to airline delays or cancellations.
During the 2022 Christmas holiday, operational failures at the carrier resulted in 16,900 cancelled flights leaving more than two million passengers stranded at airports across the country. The airline was subsequently fined $140M by the Department of Transportation for numerous consumer protection violations, a penalty that was 30x larger than any civil penalty in DOT history.
In addition to the $140M, Southwest (LUV) was ordered to pay $600M in refunds and reimbursements to passengers who faced travel disruptions, bringing the total cost to the carrier from the meltdown to nearly three-quarters of a billion dollars.
Related: DOT forcing airlines to give full refunds for canceled and delayed flights