Southwest Class Action Says 450 Canceled Flights Over De-Icer Shortage

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A Southwest Airlines customer has filed a class action lawsuit against the company for canceling flights when they ran out of de-icer, leaving thousands of travelers unable to take flights for which they had paid.

Plaintiff Brian Hughes claims that he purchased a Southwest ticket to fly from Phoenix to Chicago on Feb. 11. Allegedly, when he was at the airport, preparing to board the flight, he was notified that the flight had been canceled because of weather problems.

However, he learned on the news the following day that Southwest had canceled 250 flights departing from the Chicago Midway International Airport not because of weather problems themselves, but because they ran out of de-icer, which made the planes unable to fly safely in winter weather conditions.

The news report allegedly noted that Southwest announced that it was short on fluid just after a major storm had hit the Chicago area, causing snowy and icy conditions. The news report also noted that Southwest was the only airline flying flights out of the Midway International Airport to have run out of de-icer.

Allegedly, the de-icer shortage problem was not limited to one day — 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.

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.

The plaintiff claims that Southwest has a contractual obligation to provide a flight to a customer if they purchased a ticket, and that the airline is in violation of their contractual obligation by failing to fly customers because the airline ran out of de-icer.

Allegedly, the carriage contract that Southwest has agreed to does in fact grant certain leeway, allowing the airline to not provide flights to customers who purchased a ticket, a de-icer shortage is not one of the circumstances in which Southwest is not liable.

The Southwest de-icer cancellations class action lawsuit claims that Hughes and other customers who had flights canceled were financially injured by the airline because they were not able to receive the benefits of their purchase with the airline.

Hughes is represented by Terrence Bueller of the Law Office of Terrence Buehler, by Kent A. Heitzinger of Kent A. Heitzinger & Associates, and by Thomas F. Burke of Thomas F. Burke PC.

The Southwest De-Icer Shortage Cancelations Class Action Lawsuit is Brian Hughes v. Southwest Airlines Inc., Case No. 1:18-cv-05315, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.