However, according to travel expert Kurt Ebenhoch, it wasn't the storm that caused this disruption. Jordan concluded his message by saying the airline is "optimistic to be back on track before next week." "The tools we use to recover from disruption serve us well, 99 percent of the time but clearly, we need to double down on our already existing plans to upgrade systems for these extreme circumstances so that we never again face what's happening right now." "Our network is highly complex and the operation of the airline counts on all the pieces, especially aircraft and crews remaining in motion to where they're planned to go," Jordan said. In a statement released by Southwest Monday, the airline said it was severe weather that "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," and that the airline has made the decision to "continue operating a reduced schedule by flying roughly one third of our schedule for the next several days."Ī video update posted on Southwest Airline's website Tuesday from CEO Bob Jordan echoed this sentiment, saying that "cities where large numbers of scheduled flights simultaneously froze as record bitter cold brought challenges for all airlines." Here's an explanation of what happened: Why Did Southwest See More Flight Cancellations Than Other Airlines? Those weaknesses are not new - they helped cause a similar failure by Southwest in October 2021. “I have spoken with Secretary Buttigieg to express the frustration of thousands of Illinoisans who have been stranded and missed out on quality time with their families or who have had to call off work because they couldn’t make it back home.”īut Southwest Airlines was undone by a combination of factors including an antiquated crew-scheduling system and a network design that allows cancellations in one region to cascade throughout the country rapidly. “I am closely following the ongoing challenges consumers are dealing with regarding their canceled Southwest flights,” Pritzker said. Pritzker also said he has been in contact with federal officials regarding the cancellations in recent days, demanding that the airline be held accountable. Department of Transportation, which called the rate of cancellations “unacceptable," and sought to ensure that the carrier was sticking by its obligations to stranded customers. The disparity has triggered a closer look at Southwest operations by the U.S. He vowed to hold the airline accountable and push it to reimburse travelers. He noted that while cancellations across the rest of the industry declined to about 4% of scheduled flights, they remained above 60% at Southwest.įrom the high rate of cancellations to customers’ inability to reach Southwest on the phone, the airline’s performance has been unacceptable, Buttigieg said. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who has criticized airlines for previous disruptions, said “meltdown” was the only word he could think of to describe this week’s events at Southwest. But at this point, the many years of failure by management, despite many unions’ demands to modernize, has left flight attendants fatigued, stranded, hungry and cold."Ĭaptain Casey Murray, SWAPA president, on Tuesday called the situation "disgraceful," "catastrophic," and a "failure at every level." "We know winter storms.We know about stepping up and putting in long work hours when we are called to do so we are flight attendants. "We know the demands of holiday travel," the union's statement goes on to say. It wasn't just passengers who were stranded.Īccording to a release from TWU Local 556, Southwest Airlines Flight Attendant Union of more than 18,000 members, "thousands" of crew members are also stranded across the country, "some forced to sleep on cots in airports, some in hotels without power or water, and far too many working long hours well past acceptable duty days, and more."
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