Holiday travelers who’ve been stranded for days will have to keep waiting or find other ways to get home as Southwest Airlines canceled another 2,500 flights today and said it could be days before normal service is restored.
The Dallas-based airline’s cuts amounted to 60 percent of its schedule and continued mounting even as weather conditions across the nation and operations at other carriers are improving. There’s little relief in sight. Southwest has already cut more than 2,300 flights scheduled for Thursday, or 58 percent of its schedule. It’s begun canceling Friday flights.
In San Antonio, 61 flights scheduled to depart Thursday and three set to leave Friday have so far been scrubbed by Southwest, the airport’s biggest passenger carrier.
On ExpressNews.com: Canceled flights strand travelers in San Antonio, forcing Southwest Airlines into damage-control mode
At Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, Southwest scrapped 123 flights today, 119 flights Thursday and 39 flights Friday.
The disruptions have stranded weary travelers at airports across the nation, where they’re spending hours waiting in line or on the phone for customer service. Some said they have been booked for flights after New Year’s Day, while others have opted to rent cars and drive home instead.
Cancellations and delays began rising over the weekend as a winter storm blanketed much of the U.S. with heavy snow, ice and strong winds.
While other airlines have largely recovered from the weather, Southwest is still struggling.
Analysts and the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association have attributed its meltdown to a combination of severe weather, the carrier’s operational model and outdated technology.
On ExpressNews.com: Flight delays and cancellations cause passengers to scramble at San Antonio airport
The largest domestic carrier uses a “point-to-point” model, in which planes fly from destination to destination without returning to a hub. When there’s a delay or cancellation, the ripple effects are rapid — as seen this week when the storm grounded planes and left crews stuck across much of the nation.
The pilots association, which represents more than 10,000 pilots, blamed Southwest for not investing in technology infrastructure that could ease such problems. It also called on the airline to implement crew scheduling software that takes into account the carrier’s point-to-point system.
“The holiday meltdown has been blamed on weather that had been forecast five days prior, but this problem began many years ago when the complexity of our network outgrew its ability to withstand meteorological and technological disruptions,” the organization said.
Southwest CEO Bob Jordan apologized to customers and employees in a video Tuesday and said the airline is “focused on safely getting all of the pieces back into position to end this rolling struggle.”
He said Southwest must “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.”
The airline is facing federal scrutiny. The U.S. Department of Transportation said it would look into Southwest’s operations because it is concerned about the airline’s “unacceptable rate of cancellations and delays” and reports of poor customer service.
Pete Buttigieg, the transportation secretary, said in an interview on “NBC Nightly News” on Tuesday that it was “an unacceptable situation” that would demand a closer look at Southwest’s scheduling system.
“We all understand that you can’t control the weather,” he said, adding that “this has clearly crossed the line from what is an uncontrollable weather situation to something that is the airline’s direct responsibility.”
Differences between the performance of Southwest and other airlines are stark.
On Friday, about 1,300 Southwest flights — about 34 percent of its schedule that day — were canceled. Other airlines in the United States also struggled, with about 22.5 percent of all non-Southwest flights canceled, according to FlightAware.
But as other airlines regained their footing — 13.3 percent of non-Southwest flights were canceled Saturday, 9.7 percent on Sunday and 5.7 percent on Monday — cancellations kept mounting at Southwest.
It canceled 39 percent of its flights on Saturday. The number grew to 46 percent Sunday, 74 percent Monday and 64 percent Tuesday.
In total, nearly 11,000 Southwest flights have been canceled since Thursday, according to FlightAware.
madison.iszler@express-news.net