The Trump administration quietly posted a notice on the Department of Transportation website on Friday announcing that Southwest Airlines would have the remainder of its $140 million fine waived — a charge issued to the airline after it left millions of travelers stranded over the 2022 holiday season.
Southwest still owed approximately $11 million toward the fine, money that has been directed toward affected customers. But DOT officials justified letting the airline off the hook by saying they believed “that this approach is in the public interest.”
The move marks just the latest effort to reverse course from the Biden administration, which saw its DOT issue several punitive actions against the airline industry over illegal practices during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, including failing to refund passengers for cancelled flights, an issue exacerbated after airlines intentionally overbooked flights at increasing rates starting in 2022.
Other examples of the Trump administration’s softer approach on regulating the airline industry include the dropping of a lawsuit filed by the Biden administration for “chronically delayed flights” in May, and the reworking of consumer-protection rules enacted in the Biden administration that ensured fliers received automatic compensation for cancelled flights.
This pattern, suggested Luke Goldstein Monday in The Lever, was likely linked to extensive efforts from the airline lobby, and the Trump administration’s close ties to the lobbyists.
“Airlines for America, the main industry association representing Southwest and other airlines, hired the influential MAGA-connected lobbying firm Ballard Partners at the start of the year to work on ‘aviation policy for domestic carriers,’” Goldstein wrote.
“White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and Attorney General Pam Bondi both worked as lobbyists for Ballard. Shortly after the 2024 presidential election, Southwest Airlines CEO Bob Jordan said the Trump years would be ‘great for business’ and that ‘the regulatory environment I hope is also more constructive for the industry.’
The political action committee for Southwest Airlines alone spent close to $200,000 on Republican candidates and associated fundraising apparatuses in the 2024 election, and in 2020 contributed more than $125,000 to President Donald Trump’s campaign.
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