Southwest Airlines was fined $140 million for the company’s travel problems that led to more than 14,000 flight delays during the 2022 holiday season, stranding tens of thousands of passengers at airports around the country, CNN reports.
Although less than the amount awarded to Rudy Giuliani’s defamation victims to date, most of the fine–$90 million–will be put into a fund to pay inconvenienced Southwest passengers in the future. The airline reported it has paid more than $600 million already in compensation, refunds and reimbursements to its passengers impacted by the service system malfunction. In its financial reports, Southwest said the weeks-long problem cost the airline nearly $1 billion from the end of 2022 into 2023.