AMERICAN AND SOUTHWEST OBTAIN AMENDED CONSENT ORDERS
January 23, 2026
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On December 9, 2025, DOT amended a prior consent order issued against American Airlines penalizing the carrier for disability-related violations. While American initially faced $50,000,000 in civil penalties with $25,000,000 payable over three equal installments, DOT amended the consent order and allowed American to reinvest monies allocated for remaining penalty payments to benefit passengers with disabilities. DOT intends for the amended consent order to incentive American, along with other carriers transporting passengers with wheelchairs, to invest in modern technology (e.g., equipment and systems that improve wheelchair handling for passengers with disabilities) and provide direct compensation to affected passengers.
Southwest also secured an amended consent order on similar grounds earlier this month. By way of background, the Department assessed a civil penalty of $140 million against Southwest in December 2023 for operational failures stranding some two million passengers during the 2022 holiday season. Even though Southwest still owed $11 million payable to the U.S. Treasury no later than January 31, 2026, DOT amended the prior consent order and provided the carrier with $11 million in credits for significantly improving on-time performance metrics. Southwest was commended for investing more than $1 billion to address operational resiliency issues which were the root cause of the 2022 meltdown. By amending the consent order, DOT trusts that carriers will be incentivized to reinvest so that the traveling public can experience improved operations.
Consumer protection advocates were quick to bemoan both amended consent orders as “crony capitalism” where mutually advantageous ties work to advantage major U.S. air carrier interests at the expense of consumers. Critics argue that American and Southwest were already making the investments to which DOT referenced such that amending the consent orders fails to protect passengers with disabilities and permits carriers to get off the proverbial hook for purported violations of consumer protection laws. In any event, U.S. and foreign air carriers under current DOT consent orders are strongly considering whether they too could request amendments to their consent orders. Savvy public-private relationships can prove mutually beneficial, especially when those benefits are realized by the flying public.
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