Embattled Southwest Airlines canceled dozens of flights again after returning to a more regular schedule after a meltdown caused by a winter storm last week.
Southwest had canceled 160, or 3%, of its flights as of Monday afternoon, the most of any American airline, according to tracking site FlightAware. Another 422 or 10% of scheduled flights were delayed. The majority of disrupted flights were scheduled to arrive or depart from Denver International Airport.
Last week, the Dallas-based airline canceled thousands of flights a day, disrupting passengers’ vacation travel plans. Although the airline blamed winter weather for the flight disruptions, US Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg insisted that “Southwest’s thousands of cancellations over the past few days were not due to the weather.”
“Other airlines that experienced weather-related cancellations and delays due to the winter storm recovered relatively quickly, unlike Southwest,” he wrote in a letter to Southwest CEO Robert Jordan.
An official with the Southwest Airlines pilots’ union describes how the problems 03:39 accumulated
Southwest canceled fewer than 50 flights on Friday as it recovered from one of the airline industry’s worst meltdowns in recent years. But with a surge in the number of trips sunk on Monday, passengers continued to complain on Twitter.
“@SouthwestAir, can you provide a transparent update on your baggage reconciliation efforts? Over a week now with no updates. The form is gaslighting and a highly dishonest attempt at appeasement,” tweeted one frustrated customer.
@SouthwestAir, can you provide a transparent update on your baggage reconciliation efforts? Now over a week without updates. The form is gaslight and a most dishonest attempt to placate. #Do it better #Southwest Airlines #Southwestmeltdown
— BCtheSE (@blakechandlers) January 2, 2023
in one tweet In response to a customer inquiring about missing luggage, Southwest said Monday it remained “inundated with luggage to be reunited with its owners.”
A spokesman for Southwest said the airline was “running a normal flight schedule” on Monday and was “pleased” with its performance over the past few days.
Passenger erupts in celebration after finding lost luggage 01:16
The spokesman attributed the “minimal cancellations” of 4,000 scheduled flights to “weather in several areas, including fog this morning in Chicago and heavy snowfall in Denver.”
A violent winter storm bringing snow, sleet and freezing rain has sparked National Weather Service warnings from the Rocky Mountains to the upper Mississippi Valley.
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