Southwest flyers continue to suffer from delays and cancellations in the days following the airline’s massive meltdown.
The Dallas-based carrier canceled 205 flights on Monday, and delayed over 40% of its schedule, or roughly 1,770 flights, FlightAware data shows.
These numbers are nowhere near as high as the nearly 3,000 flights per day that Southwest canceled during the final week of 2022. However, the airline still fared poorly on what was expected to be one of the busiest travel days of the entire holiday travel period.
Southwest topped the list of domestic airlines in the number of cancellations and delays on Monday. Aside from regional affiliates flying for larger network carriers, Spirit was in second place with 94 cancellations and 417 delays on Monday, FlightAware data shows.
Monday was expected to be one of the busiest travel days of the entire holiday season, as the federal holiday for New Year’s was observed during the first weekday of 2023. With schools and companies returning to the classroom and office, many travelers used Monday as a travel day to return home.
A whopping 2,361,734 people passed through Transportation Security Administration checkpoints on Monday, making it the second-busiest travel day since Christmas, TSA data shows.
While Southwest had the most operational woes of any U.S. airline on Monday, it wasn’t entirely the airline’s fault. Severe weather across the nation, particularly in Chicago and Denver — two of Southwest’s biggest cities — created cascading delays and cancellations for the airline. Additionally, an air traffic control system failure in Florida caused another operational snag in the airline’s recovery.
That said, Southwest was hit hardest, and it comes as the airline is working to resume normal operations following last week’s meltdown.
It all started in the week before Christmas when a vicious winter storm rolled across much of the country, sending temperatures plunging in some cities to numbers not seen in three decades. Combined with fierce winds that wreaked havoc on East Coast airports and widespread snow inland — more than 5 feet in some parts of the Great Lakes — it was a recipe for disaster in the nation’s skies.
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Airlines were walloped by the storm, with every big U.S. carrier suffering major disruptions from what some weather watchers described as a once-in-a-generation winter storm.
It took just a day or two for most major U.S. carriers to get back on track. However, Southwest’s operation was so overwhelmed by the storm that it ultimately turned into the nation’s biggest airline meltdown in recent history.
Between Dec. 26 and Dec. 29, Southwest canceled nearly 3,000 flights a day and delayed thousands more. The airline’s antiquated crew-scheduling system couldn’t handle the volume of reaccommodation requests from pilots and flight attendants, leading to hourslong waits for new assignments, further bogging the carrier down.
Combined with the airline’s unique network strategy of sending planes and crews crisscrossing around the country without necessarily returning to an operating base, it was a recipe for disaster for Southwest.
The carrier decided to perform a “reset” of its network and preemptively cancel thousands of flights during the last week of the year. Hundreds of thousands of passengers were inconvenienced by the meltdown, which led to some travelers missing time at home with families and friends for the holidays.
Southwest apologized for the meltdown in a recorded video with chief commercial officer Ryan Green. “My personal apology is the first step of making things right after many plans changed and experiences fell short of your expectations of us,” said Green.
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg promised an “extraordinary effort” to ensure that Southwest makes it up to those who were disrupted.
Things started getting back to normal Dec. 30, though it’s a long road to recovery for the airline.
For one, Southwest needs to reunite customers with their checked bags, many of which made it to different cities than the traveler. Many travelers incurred out-of-pocket expenses as part of the meltdown. Southwest promises to reimburse these last-minute hotel, car rental and alternate transportation expenses.
While we already posted a guide to getting reimbursed by Southwest, I personally shared my positive experience on Twitter. Southwest refunded my canceled flight, sent me a check for my last-minute replacement ticket and added a $250 future travel voucher as a gesture of goodwill.
Additionally, on Tuesday, the carrier sent 25,000 bonus Rapid Rewards points, worth $375 according to TPG valuations, to customers impacted by the airline’s meltdown.
As for Tuesday, things are looking better for Southwest. The airline had canceled just under 50 flights and delayed about 370 flights as of press time.
For more about Southwest’s meltdown, be sure to check out:
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