Southwest Airlines flight cancellations continue to snowball

Cascading flight cancellations continued to rock Southwest Airlines passengers scrambling to find other ways to get home Wednesday while dealing with mounting expenses related to the airline fiasco.

At MacArthur Airport on Wednesday, there were 15 flight cancellations — all flights operated by Southwest — according to the FlightAware tracking service, and exasperated customers streamed in to rebook their departures while others extended hotel stays and wondered if they’ll ever get reimbursed for all the out-of-pocket extras.

Some Long Islanders who spent the holidays out of town took matters into their own hands and rented cars to secure their return.

 Angela Weber, 42, from Selden, said she was stuck at an airport in Nashville, Tennessee, Christmas Eve morning into the evening because her flight kept getting delayed until it was eventually called off. After learning about the nationwide service disruption, she put down more than $400 for a car rental and drove 14 hours straight home. 

She returned to the airport Wednesday to pick up her luggage, which had been checked in, and also received a refund for her ticket.

“I don’t understand, it’s the holiday season and everybody is going to be flying, so you should be prepared with your crew and everything,” she said.

“I feel bad that it’s happening, but their communication was definitely lacking. If I didn’t ask questions or go find out things, I wouldn’t find out any information,” Weber said.

Most U.S. airlines, by Monday, had recovered from the winter storm that impacted the country, but Southwest was continuing to deal with wide-ranging disruptions, and as a result cut its schedule by roughly one-third over the next several days. 

By early Wednesday afternoon on the East Coast, about 90% of all canceled flights for the day in the United States were Southwest's, according to FlightAware.

A combination of factors led to the turmoil, including an antiquated crew-scheduling system and a network design that allows cancellations in one market to ripple nationwide. Those weaknesses also contributed to a similar failure by Southwest in October 2021. 

Randy Barnes, the president of TWU Local 55, representing Southwest ground workers, said in a statement the meltdown could have been averted with better preparation, including more support for overworked ground workers and more spacing between flights.

The U.S. Department of Transportation, which has enforcement tools available to make sure airlines are complying with customer service commitments, will investigate the matter. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who has criticized airlines for previous disruptions, said his agency would examine the causes of Southwest's widespread cancellations and whether the airline was meeting its obligations to help passengers. 

In a video posted on the Southwest website Tuesday, CEO Robert Jordan apologized after the storm disrupted the airline's "highly complex" network. He added the carrier is reducing flights to "catch up."

“We're focused on safely getting all of the pieces back into position to end this rolling struggle,” Jordan said.

Meanwhile, the carrier opened a self-service tool to help affected customers request a refund or other services.

At LaGuardia Airport on Wednesday, the airline canceled 62 flights, accounting for roughly 83% of all canceled U.S. flights there for the day.

with AP