What’s The Southwest Lawsuit About?
A Southwest passenger has sued the Dallas-based airline over its decision to cancel hundreds of flights amid problems de-icing planes at Midway Airport last winter.
Brian Hughes had booked a flight scheduled to leave Phoenix for Midway on the afternoon of Feb. 11, but Southwest canceled the flight, blaming the weather, according to the lawsuit, filed in federal court in Chicago on Friday.
More than 250 flights were canceled that day after the airline ran short of glycol, the fluid used to de-ice aircraft, and a pump on one of the glycol tanks failed. The de-icer shortage problem was not limited to just one day though. The Southwest class action lawsuit claims that the airline canceled more than 450 flights when it ran out of de-icer, causing an estimated 45,000 passengers to be left without a flight.
The Southwest Airlines class action lawsuit claims the plaintiff reached this number because each Boeing 737-700 plane has around 137 seats, so each time Southwest canceled a flight due to a de-icer shortage, it affected more than 100 people.
Who’s Eligible?
Hughes seeks to represent all Southwest passengers who had a ticket for the airline on Dec. 8, 24 or 28, 2017, Jan. 12 or 15, 2018, or Feb. 11, 2018 and who had a flight canceled because of weather problems. Allegedly, these dates are the days in which Southwest ran out of de-icer and canceled flights because of this issue.
How Much Do I Get?
These are the first steps and we do not know yet if there will be a settlement or how much each passenger will receive if it goes that far.
HT: topclassactions
