Southwest Airlines had to apologize to the thousands of passengers left behind when it cancelled or delayed at most 34% of its Saturday flight schedule. According to Flight Aware, the airline had already cancelled 462 flights and delayed 652 more.
Southwest blamed disruptions on weather and unspecified air traffic control issues. Southwest warned that it would take a weekend to restore its operations and that the wait times for customer service phone lines was longer than usual.
Southwest thanked passengers for their patience and encouraged them to use its website to search for rebooking options. Customers took to Twitter to complain about the inability to find flights before Monday.
Justin Lindy: Bad weather? Why isn't this happening to other major airlines? It's a joke. Lindy tweeted to Southwest complaining about the great way to ruin a vacation's start.
This is not an ATC issue. ! wrote Carrie Polidan. Stop lying Southwest! Jet Blue (sic) flew my family out of San Francisco without any problems. When I called, it was not equipped with a crew. There was no return flight until Monday. Unacceptable!! Unacceptable!
Grace Ann Hogan complained after her flight was cancelled that she had to wait for three hours for her luggage return.
Bad weather Monday night in the north has caused Southwest to have aircraft and crews that are out of position. The problem has been made worse by a shortage of air traffic control personnel in certain locations. However, the FAA reports no ATC delays at major international airports.
Spirit Airlines experienced a similar problem in August. The airline had to cancel thousands of flights due to spiraling costs.
Southwest's flight attendant union complained for months about being overwhelmed and threatened to break down after they packed their schedules to capitalize on a boom in travel demand.
Southwest apologized to its staff for placing a strain on them during the summer, and has reduced its schedule over the next few months. Southwest announced Friday that it will pay for a DoorDash subscription for all active crew members so they can get food delivered to their rooms after long days of duty.
