Southwest Airlines continues to struggle in the aftermath of the winter storm and holiday weekend, canceling over 70 percent of its flights on Monday alone.
While flight delays and cancellation affected several U.S. airlines across the country due to the winter storm, Southwest Airlines is failing to bounce back, leaving thousands of individuals stranded, unable to reach their final destinations.
Data from FlightAware shows that over 3,100 U.S.-related flights were canceled on Christmas Day, and over 7,800 were delayed. Southwest comprised a disproportionate number of those cancellations, nixing 1,635 flights on Christmas Day.
On Monday, the day after Christmas, Southwest ended up canceling 2,909 flights, or 71 percent of its flights, according to data from FlightAware. That is significantly more than airlines such as Delta or American, which on Monday canceled 276 and 14 flights, respectively. In other words, Delta canceled nine percent of its flights, and American was still hovering at zero percent compared to Southwest’s 71 percent.
As Breitbart News reported:
On Christmas, for instance, 20 percent of Southwest flights from Dallas Love Field Airport alone were canceled. The figure stood around 30 percent the two days prior.
According to reports, thousands were also stranded at the San Diego International Airport over the weekend, and most of those passengers were flying with Southwest.
On Monday, Southwest cancellations continued at the Denver International Airport, with hundreds of flights delayed and canceled. According to the Denver Post, most of these flights are associated with Southwest.
Out of the 4,006 U.S.-related airline cancellations Monday, Southwest comprised 2,909, or 73 percent of the total cancellations.
Things were not shaping up much better on Tuesday. As 11:00 a.m. ET, Southwest had already canceled 63 percent of its flights — 2,543:
Luggage piled up in the @SouthwestAir baggage claim area tonight at Denver International Airport (DIA). @DenverChannel #southwest #southwestair pic.twitter.com/8bcdwgW9zd
— Brandon Richard (@BrandonLRichard) December 26, 2022
Air travel issues continue, but now in our area they’re largely related to one airline, Southwest. Video sent by a viewer of our sister station in Baltimore shows BWI Marshall, where Southwest has nearly 200 canceled flights today. 32 Southwest flights canceled at DCA, 10@ Dulles pic.twitter.com/tgurnJzwOX
— Tom Roussey (@tomroussey7news) December 26, 2022
It’s a bag blizzard at Tampa Intl
With so many canceled flights – especially Southwest – hundreds if not thousands of bags are stranded
Passengers have told us these are bags from flights that were canceled or from connection flights that never took off
Absolute nightmare pic.twitter.com/bKMz9Edzoa
— Evan Axelbank Fox13 (@EvanAxelbank) December 26, 2022
According to NPR, a Southwest spokesperson blamed the disruptions, largely, on the winter storm. Southwest spokesman Jay McVay also attributed the mess to the storm as well.
“So we’ve been chasing our tails, trying to catch up and get back to normal safely, which is our number one priority as quickly as we could,” he said. “And that’s exactly how we ended up where we are today.”
Southwest said in an update that it is trying to recover from operational challenges and has deliberately made the decision to “continue operating a reduced schedule by flying roughly one third of our schedule for the next several days.”
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