Hundreds of Southwest Airlines’ travelers remained stranded at airports across the country Tuesday morning because the fallout from a strong winter storm that pounded much of the nation continued to ground tons of of flights and disrupt passengers’ holiday travel plans.
Airlines canceled greater than 2,800 flights Tuesday morning, nearly all of them — 2,526 flights — with Southwest Airlines, in response to the flight tracking website FlightAware.
At Los Angeles International Airport, 59 flights were canceled as of 6 a.m. Tuesday, and 27 were delayed.
John Wayne Airport had 51 Southwest flights canceled and two delayed Tuesday morning, while San Diego saw among the biggest disruptions, with 89 Southwest flights canceled and 19 delayed, in response to Flight Aware. At Hollywood Burbank Airport, 18 Southwest flights — or two-thirds of its services — were canceled, in response to the mobile flight tracker Flightview.
In California, tons of of flights have been delayed or canceled through the tip of the week — making up much of the Southwest schedule.
Southwest CEO Bob Jordan told the Wall Street Journal the airline planned to operate at around one-third of standard capability because it tries to regroup and get the schedule back on target.
“That is the most important scale event that I’ve ever seen,” he said.
The nightmarish travel scenario played out similarly on Monday, through which 4,000 flights were canceled. Southwest Airlines dropped nearly 70% of its scheduled flights nationwide — some 2,905 flights, way over every other major U.S. carrier — as of Monday evening, in response to FlightAware.
A flight board shows canceled flights on the Southwest Airlines terminal on at LAX.
(Eugene Garcia/Associated Press)
Southwest Airlines blamed a catastrophic winter storm that swept across the northern half of the country over the vacation weekend for the cancellations, adding in an announcement that “our heartfelt apologies for this are only starting. … We recognize falling short and sincerely apologize.”
Furious and weary travelers unloaded on Twitter, flooding Southwest with reports of the headaches they’ve experienced and proceed to face. Passengers described waiting on long lines that prolonged outside of airport terminals, missing luggage that in some cases traveled onward despite canceled flights or piled up unclaimed for days, waiting on customer support calls for hours or repeatedly getting disconnected, and attempting to navigate a glitchy website.
Some passengers said they didn’t receive an email or text message about their flight’s status, and as an alternative learned through a notice on the corporate’s app. Many also questioned the airline’s statement that the weather was the wrongdoer, declaring that other airlines were operating with fewer disruptions and that a part of the issue might be a staffing issue.
The cancellations even affected the Los Angeles political class. Newly elected L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath was left stranded in Las Vegas after her flight on Southwest back to Los Angeles was canceled, she said on Twitter Monday evening. Horvath said that no other flights were available to book on Southwest, and that every other flight back to Los Angeles would cost an inordinate sum of money.
“Due to @SouthwestAir my only probability at getting house is to spend $400+ a method on one other airline & arrive [Tuesday] afternoon (& cancel vet appt & work mtgs). Un. Real. Who can afford this? Not working families or young individuals who get to go home every year for holidays,” Horvath said in a tweet.
The paralyzing winter storm hit two of Southwest’s biggest hubs particularly hard, Chicago and Denver.
The U.S. Department of Transportation said Monday afternoon that it was “concerned by Southwest’s unacceptable rate of cancellations and delays,” in addition to reports of a “lack of prompt customer support.”
“The Department will examine whether cancellations were controllable and if Southwest is complying with its customer support plan,” the agency said in a tweet.
