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Airlines leave holiday
Southwest Airlines dramatically reduced its flight schedule and has stopped selling tickets for most of the country.
The Dallas-based airline reported it will be cutting about two-thirds of its flights from about 4,000 to around 1,400 in the coming days in an attempt to “reset” operations.
The winter storm that disrupted travel plans over the weekend and created an epic pile-on of flight cancellations for Southwest Airlines thousands of families stranded, with some waiting days to board planes. On Monday afternoon, the board at Dallas Love Field, it was reported that every single arrival had been canceled On Tuesday, Southwest had canceled more than 2,500, or 63%, of its scheduled flights by 10:37 a.m. EST, accounting for more than half of the roughly 4,650 flights that were scrapped overall. All airlines continued to experience disruptions, with Southwest leading the way with more than 300 delayed flights.
U.S. airlines canceled more than 12,000 flights beginning last Wednesday through Saturday, about 14% of their schedule. Airlines and travelers were hard-pressed to find alternative flights before the holiday because planes were booked so full, and schedules dropped sharply during the weekend. The Federal Aviation Administration said schedules peaked at 47,554 flights on Thursday, dropping to 30,875 on Saturday and just 27,997 on Christmas Day.
The situation was described by travelers as nothing short of a mess. In addition to long lines taking up space, hundreds and hundreds of bags were waiting to be claimed as the cancellations and delays kept piling up.
The federal Department of Transportation on Monday said it would investigate the meltdown, saying it was “concerned by Southwest Airlines’ disproportionate and unacceptable rate of cancellations and delays as well as the failure to properly support customers experiencing a cancellation or delay.”
“As more information becomes available the department will closely examine whether cancellations were controllable and whether Southwest is complying with its customer service plan as well as all other pertinent DOT rules,” the department said in a statement.
Southwest said in a statement Monday that its geography made it “uniquely” vulnerable to the storm, with half of the airports in which it flies affected by winter weather.
“We were fully staffed and prepared for the approaching holiday weekend when the severe weather swept across the continent, where Southwest is the largest carrier in 23 of the top 25 travel markets in the U.S. This forced daily changes to our flight schedule at a volume and magnitude that still has the tools our teams use to recover the airline operating at capacity,” the statement said.
“We anticipate additional changes with an already reduced level of flights as we approach the coming New Year holiday travel period,” it noted.
The company also blames a lack of technology. “Part of what we’re suffering is a lack of tools. We’ve talked an awful lot about modernizing the operation, and the need to do that,” CEO Bob Jordan said in an internal message on Sunday that was reported by several media outlets and the flight attendants’ union.