Dallas-based Southwest Airlines canceled nearly 400 more flights through Sunday morning and delayed nearly 800 others after technology and weather issues devastated the airline on Saturday.
The airline said the cancellations were being made proactively to “communicate as soon as possible to our affected customers and crew.” It also said there had been no further cancellations as of Sunday noon.
“We have planned and are already in a much better operating environment today, Sunday, compared to the weather and air traffic conditions experienced by us, our customers and other airline passengers on Saturday afternoon and evening,” Southwest said in a statement.
The cancellations and delays account for about a third of Southwest’s 3,600 flights scheduled for Sunday.
Other airlines also struggled due to widespread storms in Florida on Saturday, with US cancellations totaling more than 1,500 on Sunday. American Airlines, JetBlue and Fort Worth-based Spirit each canceled at least 200 flights.
Passengers who complained on social media were reportedly told flights might be unavailable for days.
Southwest’s troubles began with “intermittent technology issues after routine overnight maintenance” Friday night, which the company said have been resolved. There were also thunderstorms in Florida that delayed some flights early Saturday.
But problems worsened throughout Saturday, similar to other operational collapses over the last year that have left the airline in trouble for sometimes days as the company struggled to get pilots, flight attendants and planes where they were supposed to be and ready to fly the next day.
“It’s becoming more and more of a nightmare out there,” Casey Murray, president of the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association, said in a text message. “It started yesterday with an IT outage and schedules compound the issues taking 4-5 days to recover.”
By the end of Saturday, Southwest had canceled 520 flights, about a seventh of all flights and almost half of the company’s flights. Most of those flights took place in Florida, with nearly 500 flights from Orlando, Miami, Tampa and Fort Lauderdale being canceled on all airlines on Saturday.
Florida and New York airports were particularly problematic for travelers on Sunday.
American Airlines canceled 363 flights on Saturday and delayed another 620. As of 2:30 p.m. Sunday, the airline canceled 251 flights and delayed 233 others.
“Today our focus is on recovering from yesterday’s Florida weather and the aftermath [Air Traffic Control] Initiatives that reduced routes and may see more weather and ATC initiatives today,” said American Airlines spokeswoman Yamleque Murillo.
Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines canceled 237 flights on Saturday, about 8% of its schedule and a fifth of flights were delayed, an unusual weekend for the airline that regularly outperforms others in reliability.
Low-cost airline Spirit had to cancel about a quarter of its flights on Saturday, totaling 222 and on Sunday 237. JetBlue had 161 cancellations on Saturday but bigger problems on Sunday with 352 canceled flights.
In the past, Southwest has shifted some of the blame onto its point-to-point networks, as planes and crews can be left out of position because their planes often complete five or six flights before returning to a large base. That’s in contrast to an airline like American, which tends to repeatedly fly back and forth between smaller cities and their hubs in Dallas, Charlotte, or Chicago.
Passengers also took to social media to complain about problems reaching customer service by phone to change flights. Some even noted that tech channels seemed overwhelmed by the issues.
Becky Patterson of Birmingham, Alabama, was stuck with her 10-year-old daughter at the Orlando airport for more than eight hours on Saturday, a delay that included multiple calls to Southwest Airlines after pilots withheld cargo due to long tarmac waits . She finally gave up.
“We got one of the last rental cars and drove 9 hours home when we got there early this morning,” Patterson said. “The last thing I want is a voucher because we will no longer be flying this airline.”
Flight was delayed 6 times due to weather and then canceled due to no crew. @SouthwestAir I didn’t send any notifications or inform the gate agents, didn’t offer any vouchers or hotel assistance and tried to rebook first thing on Tuesday. I know things happen but this was handled poorly.
— Lindsay (@NOLAlexis_9) April 3, 2022
Some Southwest passengers have been informed that they cannot rebook flights until Monday or later.
I went through all of this yesterday, the process was brutal but got lucky and found a Fort Wayne henchman. It took us 12 hours to get home with all the delays, have to get our car from Indy but we feel so lucky. Much luck!!!
— Karen Parker (@Ms_Paaarker) April 3, 2022