Southwest cancels flights stranding passengers

No airline has struggled more to navigate the Christmas holiday rush than Southwest Airlines, even though a historic winter storm has tangled holiday travel and brought dangerous conditions to a big chunk of the United States.
As of 9:10 a.m. on Tuesday, Southwest has canceled more than 2,900 flights for Monday — at least 70% of its schedule for the day — and more than 2,500 flights for Tuesday. At least 60% of ET’s schedule, according to flight tracker FlightAware. Many people’s travel plans have been disrupted, leaving them stranded at airports across the country with little idea of when they can get home or where their bags are.
More than 10 times as many flights were canceled for Southwest on Monday as for Delta, which had the second most cancellations by a U.S. airline with 265 flights called off. In the past week, other airlines have also ordered large-scale cancellations.
“The airline’s disruptions are a result of the winter storm’s lingering effects,” said Chris Perry, spokesperson for Southwest. He added that the company hopes to “stabilize and improve its operation” with more favorable weather conditions.
Perry said that the airline’s struggle to accommodate the holiday rush has been exacerbated by other issues, including problems with “connecting flight crews to their schedules.” Accessing crew scheduling services and getting reassignments has become difficult for employees due to that issue.
“It’s an incredibly complex task for an airline with a network as vast as Southwest’s to coordinate staffing and scheduling, particularly after weather delays,” said Kyle Potter, executive editor of Thrifty Traveler.
The airline would seem to have few obvious reasons to cancel so many flights, but with many areas seeing clear skies on Monday. Potter refers to it as a “full-blown meltdown.”
“Potter said that this is really as bad as it gets for an airline.” We’ve seen this happen frequently in the past year or so- when airlines struggle after a storm but there are clear skies across the country.
On Monday, the airline stated that it would fly approximately one-third of its schedule in the following days as it continued to restore its operations.
“Unacceptable” is how the U.S. Department of Transportation described the cancellations, delays and customer service response.
“The Department will examine whether cancellations were controllable and if Southwest is complying with its customer service plan,” the USDOT said in a statement.
The situation started unraveling for Southwest before the Christmas weekend. “The extensive cancellations continuing on Monday is a clear sign something has gone horribly wrong,” said Potter.
Passengers from Houston, Texas, Tampa, Fla., Cleveland, Ohio, and Denver, Colo., are sharing photos and videos of overwhelmed baggage claim areas and long lines at reservation counters. According to Colorado Public Radio, at Southwest, the customer service phone line’s hold times averaged more than two hours, sometimes reaching four hours.
“I can fly by myself without any problems, but when my one-year-old has to be in the same travel situation, it becomes personal,” said Southwest passenger Joshua Caudle. He said that he was unsure when they would be able to leave Denver. I will never do business with that company again.
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The passenger, who was attempting to fly from Missouri to Denver, said she missed spending Christmas with her family after several delays and cancellations to flights out of the Kansas City International Airport. She wrote on Twitter that despite her being grounded, her luggage was sent to Denver without her.
The pandemic’s worst months have been a struggle for airlines who have lost tens of billions of dollars. As airlines try to accommodate Americans’ return to air travel, staffing shortages have plagued them. Southwest has not been the only airline to falter under the demand, as other airlines have also struggled to keep up.
As passengers faced flight cancellations during the Fourth of July holiday rush, thousands of Delta pilots picketed at major airports this summer, calling for higher pay and highlighting staff concerns. After negotiations for a new contract were paused, last month Delta pilots voted to authorize a strike.
“Every airline got small at the start of the pandemic when travel basically fell off a cliff, and they have struggled as travel has rebounded to grow back up to 100%,” Potter said.