December 18, 2023<\/p>\n
Media contact: National Consumers League \u2013 Melody Merin, melodym@nclnet.org, 202-207-2831<\/p>\n
Washington, DC – The National Consumers League (NCL) today applauded the Department of Transportation\u2019s (DOT) landmark enforcement action against Southwest Airlines over the company\u2019s operational meltdown during the 2022 holidays.<\/p>\n
The following statement is attributable to John Breyault, NCL\u2019s Vice President of Public Policy, Telecommunications, and Fraud:<\/p>\n
\u201cToday\u2019s DOT action sends an unambiguous signal to the airline industry that passengers\u2019 time is valuable and there will be consequences for carriers that waste it. The unprecedented $140 million fine demonstrates that consumer protection remains a top priority under Secretary Buttigieg\u2019s leadership. However, enforcement is just one tool in DOT\u2019s toolbox. While we welcome today\u2019s announcement, passengers should be protected regardless of which airline they choose to fly. This will only happen if DOT enacts strong rules to ensure that consumers are compensated when flights are delayed or cancelled, that refunds are processed without delay, and that unfair and deceptive practices and unfair methods of competition are policed vigorously. We look forward to continuing to work with DOT and the industry to make this a reality.\u201d<\/p>\n
###<\/p>\n
About the National Consumers League (NCL)<\/strong><\/p>\n The National Consumers League, founded in 1899, is America\u2019s pioneer consumer organization.\u00a0 Our mission is to protect and promote social and economic justice for consumers and workers in the United States and abroad.\u00a0 For more information, visit nclnet.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The National Consumers League (NCL) today applauded the Department of Transportation\u2019s (DOT) landmark enforcement action against Southwest Airlines over the company\u2019s operational meltdown during the 2022 holidays.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false},"categories":[315,458],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26942"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26942"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26942\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27197,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26942\/revisions\/27197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}