Washington DC, Apr 29 (THAINDIAN NEWS) Southwest Airlines has been fined $200,000, because they used to de-plane passengers, as their flights used to be sold many times over. Many passengers had also complained about it, and several of them even said that they were not paid by the Airline on time. The Southwest Airline had also failed to inform all the passengers about their legal rights.

The usual procedure to ‘bump off a passenger’ from a flight is to first ask if there are any volunteers to do so. And then the flight officials are supposed to give the volunteer a statement, which also lists their rights, along with a compensation for giving up their seat on the plane. The compensation can be up to $800, which can be in the form of cash, check or even a travel voucher.

In 2009, Southwest Airlines managed to bump off 13,000 passengers, which is a high figure by all means. And now they are being fined a whopping $200,000 out of which $90,000 can be waived off, if the airline doesn’t repeat the mistake the next year. And out of the fine of $200,000 they can utilize $20,000 to find alternatives for their current methods.

Brandy King, a spokesperson for Southwest, said in a statement, “We take every violation seriously and are working to improve our procedures to ensure full compliance with DOT regulations and to provide the best possible experience for all of our customers.”