By Gina Gomez
Washington, Apr 29, (THAINDIAN NEWS) Southwest Airlines Co. has attracted the ire of United States Transportation Department after a fine of $200,000 was imposed on the low cast airline carrier for violating federal regulations for bumping passengers from flights. The Dallas based airline has also been ordered to refrain from committing such violations in the future by the agency.

In a statement that has released by the U.N. Transportation Department, it has been revealed that an investigation brought to light the fact that last year that had been a number of instances when Southwest did not pay the bumped passengers the amount that they were entitled to or failed to intimate them that they had the right to receive cash instead of a voucher. In the meanwhile, a spokesperson of the agency has divulged to news sources that the airline has taken the decision to pay the assessment in order to avoid any possibilities of a litigation. However, the spokesperson did not reveal any details about the number of cases that had been investigated in this regard.

The Southwest Airlines Co. has reacted to the fine imposed on it by saying that the violations took place in only a small percentage of the flights. Brandy King, the spokesperson the Dallas based low cost air carrier has further added that the airline is taking all the necessary steps to improve the procedures as it takes any kind of violation extremely seriously. Meanwhile, according to the figures that have been released by the U.N. Transportation Department, as many as 69,234 passengers were bumped into U.S. flights in the year 2009.