Southwest Sheds Investor Lawsuit Over Tech, Flight Cancellations

Southwest Airlines Co. and current and former executives defeated investor allegations that the company misrepresented its technological infrastructure before 2022 holiday flight disruptions.

Investors failed to plausibly plead executives intentionally or recklessly defrauded the market about the airlines’ preparedness or reasons for other widespread flight cancellations, Judge Drew B. Tipton said, dismissing the investors’ complaint. Group pleadings about previously less severe flight disruptions and public criticisms by Southwest employee unions weren’t sufficient to allege securities fraud, the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas judge said in an order entered Wednesday.

And the complaint “facially acknowledges that risk ...