Southwest Airlines has left hundreds of vacationers stranded at airports all through the nation after a winter storm barreled by means of a lot of the US earlier than and throughout the vacation weekend.

While Southwest canceled over 2,600 of its flights on Tuesday, the difficulty’s anticipated to increase effectively into this week, with data from Flight Aware indicating that the airline has already referred to as off greater than 2,400 flights on Wednesday and over 1,500 on Thursday. Southwest canceled practically 3,000 flights on Monday. Other airways with notable flight cancellations didn’t even come near Southwest’s complete, as Spirit canceled 83 flights on Tuesday, whereas Alaska Airlines referred to as off 75.

According to The New York Times, in contrast to the June 2021 computer network problems that delayed over 1,500 flights and canceled tons of, Southwest’s delays this week have rather a lot to do with the way in which the airline has its flights arrange.

Southwest makes use of a “point-to-point” system that has planes flying from vacation spot to vacation spot and selecting up workers alongside the way in which. Point-to-point techniques have their benefits, as they’ll supply direct and extra reasonably priced flights as a result of the locations they cease at typically have less air traffic, however flight schedules can shortly disintegrate as soon as one route will get canceled.

Other airways, like United, use a “hub and spoke” system that has planes returning to a central hub as soon as their route is full. This permits airways to cancel flights to sure areas with out affecting different routes, in addition to have entry to further planes and flight crews with out flying them in first; one thing Southwest can’t do with out inflicting a domino impact of cancellations for its different flights.

Southwest spokesperson Jay McVay stated to reporters that as a result of storm, “We end up with flight crews and airplanes that are out of place, and not in the cities that they need to be in to continue to run our operations,” which was echoed in a video launched by CEO Bob Jordan (under).

WFAA-TV in Dallas, the place Southwest is headquartered, spoke to Mark Duebner, a former director of aviation at Dallas Love Field. Duebner, who was driving to his vacation spot attributable to a canceled flight, advised the station that whereas Southwest’s system is often very environment friendly with no slack, “If the crew isn’t positioned in the right spot, because of another cancellation, then that flight gets canceled, connecting flights get canceled. It just really spirals downward very quickly. It’s the combination of a perfect storm as you will.”

The mass cancellations have vacationers at airports ready in line for 2 or extra hours to rebook their new flights, which, sadly, received’t happen anytime quickly. A number of passengers report not getting new flights till the tip of this week or after the New Year, forcing them to sleep on airport floors whereas they wait.

Cancellations are unfold out across the US, hitting main transit hubs like Denver International Airport, Chicago Midway International, and Las Vegas’ Harry Reid International Airport. Ryan Green, Southwest’s chief business officer, tells the Wall Street Journal that the corporate will cowl the prices for resorts, rental vehicles, and different airline tickets, and is notifying prospects that they’re entitled to refunds in the event that they don’t wish to rebook their flights.

The disaster prompted a response from the US Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, who says he’s monitoring the scenario “closely” and may have an announcement on the matter tomorrow. On Monday, the US Department of Transportation sent out a tweet, stating that it’s “concerned by Southwest’s unacceptable rate of cancellations and delays & reports of lack of prompt customer service” and that it’s going to “examine whether cancellations were controllable and if Southwest is complying with its customer service plan.” Senators Ed Markey (D-MA) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) also called for Southwest to compensate passengers for the cancellations.

In a video posted to the company’s website, Southwest CEO Bob Jordan says he reached out to Buttigieg on Tuesday to speak about what the airline was doing to assist prospects. He additionally apologized to vacationers and staff, and reiterated that the corporate’s “highly complex” community struggled with giant numbers of its airplanes and crew being put out of fee. “After days of trying to operate as much of our full schedule across a busy holiday weekend, we reached a decision point to significantly reduce our flying to catch up,” he stated. You can watch his full assertion under.

In addition to cancellations as a result of snowstorm, Southwest can also be scuffling with a staffing scarcity in some areas. The airline declared a state of operational emergency final week on the Denver airport after receiving “an unusually high number of absences.” In a leaked memo to staff, Southwest Airlines says workers members will want a health care provider’s observe when calling out sick, and that it “will use mandatory overtime” to require staff to come back into work or in any other case be fired. As famous by the Denver Post, Southwest spokesperson Chris Perry denied that the callouts have been a part of a coordinated effort from staff.

“We were fully staffed and prepared for the approaching holiday weekend when the severe weather swept across the continent, where Southwest is the largest carrier in 23 of the top 25 travel markets in the U.S,” Southwest Airlines says in a statement. “As we continue the work to recover our operation, we have made the decision to continue operating a reduced schedule by flying roughly one third of our schedule for the next several days.”

This isn’t the one different time Southwest has skilled main operational points. Last October, the airline contended with both staffing shortages and extreme climate circumstances, main Southwest to cancel virtually 3,000 flights over the course of 4 days. At the time, former Southwest COO Mike Van de Ven told employees that the corporate has “a very aggressive hiring plan” however that it nonetheless isn’t “where we want to be with staffing.” Dallas Business Journal studies CEO Bob Jordan made related statements throughout an investor day presentation earlier this month, saying the corporate’s techniques wanted to be upgraded as a part of a significant modernization push to finally function 6,000 flights per day whereas using 100,000 individuals.

Update Tuesday December twenty seventh, 7:18PM ET: Added video from Southwest CEO Bob Jordan.