On the travel-heavy day after Christmas, Southwest Airlines canceled more than 2,800 flights, or 70% of its schedule, frustrating travelers across the country.
And the company plans to cut back on days as it works to recover from winter weather, flying only a third of its schedule, the company said Monday.
“Our sincere apologies for this are just beginning,” Southwest said in a statement Monday.
Photos and videos posted on social media show bags piling up, and federal transportation officials have called the cancellations unacceptable.
“I’m pissed as hell, because I see mismanagement,” Ihor Konrad told NBC Chicago. According to the station, he was stranded at the airport for two days due to the cancellation.
About 3,900 flights into or out of the United States were canceled on Monday, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware.
Southwest had 2,893 flights canceled at one point Monday, about 70% of its schedule, according to the site. Delta had about 300 and United about 130.
Southwest blamed “operational challenges” after days of severe winter weather in most parts of the country.
And Southwest’s problems aren’t over. The airline plans to fly about a third of its schedule – or about 1,500 flights – for the next “several days” so it can redeploy out-of-position flight staff, the company said.
“On the other hand, we will work to make things right for those we leave behind, including our employees,” the company said in a statement.
The bags piled up at Denver International Airport and Chicago’s Midway Airport on Monday, video showed. Southwest said it was inundated with calls and messages and asked for patience.
Southwest CEO Bob Jordan also told the Wall Street Journal that the company plans to work more than a third of its normal schedule on Tuesday and Wednesday.
“We had a tough day today. In all likelihood we’ll have another tough day tomorrow as we get out of this,” Jordan told the newspaper.
This is baggage claim at @DENAirport. Customers of @SouthwestAir say line to rebook is 3+ hours long. Some have been stranded for days, unable to get a rental car or hotel. Via FlightAware: 376 cancelled Southwest flights at DEN. The next most is United with 22 cancellations. pic.twitter.com/7fzeSnnYUo
— Courtney Yuen (@courtyuen) December 26, 2022
Much of the continental United States, at one point encompassing more than 200 million people, was under winter weather warnings or alerts heading into the holiday weekend, with bitterly cold temperatures and ice.
According to FlightAware, 8,200 flights were canceled in or out of the United States on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
The problems with Southwest flights also drew the attention of the Department of Transportation, which called the airline’s performance unacceptable.
“USDOT is concerned about Southwest Airlines’ disproportionate and unacceptable rate of cancellations and delays, as well as its failure to adequately support customers experiencing cancellations or delays,” a department spokesperson said in a statement.
“As more information becomes available, the department will examine whether the cancellations were controllable and whether Southwest is complying with its customer service plan as well as all other relevant DOT regulations,” the statement said.
Southwest said it was staffing the holiday in advance but the severe weather greatly affected its plans.
“These operational conditions force daily changes in volume and magnitude to our flight schedule which still has equipment that our crews use to recover the airline operating at capacity,” the airline said.
The day after Christmas is typically one of the busiest travel days of the year — although the Transportation Safety Administration said last week that it expects Dec. 22 and Dec. 30 to be the busiest this year.
More than 2 million travelers passed through TSA checkpoints on Friday, and the number was 1.7 million on Sunday, according to the TSA website. Numbers for Monday were not yet posted online.
At North Carolina’s Raleigh-Durham International Airport, a flight turned into a long road trip instead — after Southwest flights were canceled, passengers were given the option to travel by bus, Raleigh’s NBC affiliate WRAL reported.
“There’s nothing I can do but stay on this bus to go home,” passenger Eric Ford told the station.