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Airline class action lawsuits overview:
- Who: Consumers recently filed class action lawsuits against American Airlines, JetBlue and Southwest Airlines.
- Why: The class airline lawsuits claim problems with system upgrades, military leave denial, antitrust allegations and canceled flight refunds.
- Where: The airline class action lawsuits affect consumers nationwide.
Consumers recently filed class action lawsuits against a trio of major U.S. airlines over claims collectively revolving around canceled flight refunds, system upgrades, military leave denial and antitrust allegations.
The complaints come amid recent concerns with air travel after airlines were forced to cancel thousands of flights around the holidays due to inclement weather and system failures.
Southwest was hit the hardest during the holiday debacle, with the airline forced to cancel more than 16,700 flights through the course of the crisis, resulting in as much as $825 million in losses, NPR reports.
Southwest hit with class action lawsuits following mass flight cancellations
A consumer filed a class action lawsuit against Southwest earlier this month, arguing the company violated federal law by allegedly not providing prompt refunds to travelers who had their flights canceled.
The consumer argues that, while Southwest initially blamed the cancellations on the weather, the airline’s CEO Bob Jordan confirmed that its systems needed updating and were to blame.
Given that the cancellations were allegedly the fault of Southwest, the consumer claims the airline is thus mandated to grant refunds “as well as full compensation for incurred costs and resultant cancellations for the failure of the carriage contract.”
Southwest is alleged to have responded to the cancellations by simply suggesting that impacted travelers submit their receipts for the flights to the airline to receive “consideration reimbursement.”
An investor filed a separate class action lawsuit against Southwest this month, arguing the airline was aware that its legacy systems needed updating prior to the mass cancellations.
Southwest’s stock price dipped 12% due to the mass cancellations and even more after the New York Times released an opinion piece detailing the airlines’ alleged responsibility for the fiasco.
“As flights were getting canceled around the country, it soon emerged that the root cause behind Southwest Airlines’ cancellations was outdated and ineffective technology, in particular, its crew scheduling system,” the Southwest class action states.
The investor behind the complaint, meanwhile, argues Southwest misled the public about the risks accompanying its older technology and distinctive “point-to-point” route structure.
He also alleges Southwest downplayed the risks of its outdated system, making misleading statements about its technology and withholding the fact that its point-to-point structure could fail during inclement weather.
American Airlines, JetBlue accused of preventing competition at four largest U.S. airports
A federal judge in New York consolidated a pair of class actions filed against American Airlines and JetBlue earlier this month.
The airline lawsuits accused American Airlines and JetBlue of agreeing to work together in what is known as the Northeastern Alliance to allegedly prevent competition between them at four of the largest airports in the United States.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), meanwhile, deemed the Northeastern Alliance “anticompetitive and unlawful as a whole,” according to a class action filed in New York federal court.
“The DOJ concludes, as this Action does, that the ‘Alliance is anticompetitive and unlawful as a whole, and the output coordination and revenue-sharing restraints present particular competitive concerns due to their inherently anticompetitive nature,’” the class action states.
The agreement allegedly ensures the airlines make the same revenue for flights out of Boston’s Logan International Airport, New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport and LaGuardia Airport and New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport regardless of whether American or JetBlue is the carrier.
American Airlines beats claims it failed to pay reservist workers for military leave
A federal judge dismissed a separate class action lawsuit originally filed against American Airlines in 2018 over claims it failed to pay its workers for time spent on military leave.
The military reservists behind the complaint argued American Airlines violated the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) by allegedly failing to pay its workers during mandatory military training.
At the same time, American Airlines is alleged to pay its civilian workers for time-off requests made for things such as jury duty or bereavement while subsequently allegedly denying compensation for military leave.
The judge ruled that military leave was not synonymous with short-term leave requests, determining that a military reservist would miss more time than a civilian ultimately would.
The military reservists announced that they plan to appeal the judge’s decision to dismiss the complaint.
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