Southwest Airlines cancellations continue as feds launch probe, unions blast outdated scheduling systems

As other airlines recovered from weather-imposed cancellations and delays on Tuesday, Southwest Airlines’ troubles continued to mount.

Employees blasted what they called an outdated scheduling system as responsible for the chaos, a cry echoed by Sens. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.). The two politicians on Tuesday said the airline should fully reimburse passengers.

The Dallas-based airline canceled 2,950 flights on Tuesday, about 60% of scheduled trips, after scuttling 70% of Monday’s scheduled flights. It then said it was only going to operate a third of its scheduled trips in the coming days and would stop selling tickets entirely as it put crews in position. In contrast, cancellations at other airlines were between zero and 2%.

The U.S. Department of Transportation, “concerned by Southwest’s unacceptable rate of cancellations and delays & reports of lack of prompt customer service,” said it would investigate the service discrepancy.

Thousands of people across the U.S. were stranded, missed holiday gatherings and cruises, bought tickets on other airlines without their luggage or gave up going anywhere. Many incurred extra expenses on hotels and transportation to and from the airport for rebooked flights that were also canceled.

The delays did not bode well for New Year’s weekend.

“We’ve had another very tough day today in the operation,” Southwest CEO Bob Jordan told employees in a Tuesday message obtained by the Dallas Morning News. “And there are several more days ahead of us in all likelihood.”

The airline apologized for the disruption and partially blamed last week’s crippling storm’s affects on its Chicago and Denver hubs.

“With consecutive days of extreme winter weather across our network behind us, continuing challenges are impacting our customers and employees in a significant way that is unacceptable,” the airline said in a statement, emphasizing that its focus was on safety. “And our heartfelt apologies for this are just beginning.”

Southwest insisted it was “fully staffed and prepared for the approaching holiday weekend when the severe weather swept across the continent” and forced scheduling changes “at a volume and magnitude that still has the tools our teams use to recover the airline operating at capacity.”

But Blumenthal, Markey and union officials said “internal failures at the company” were largely to blame.

“Southwest Airlines is failing consumers during the most important travel week of the year,” the senators said in a joint statement. “Instead of a holiday spent celebrating with family and friends, passengers are sleeping in airports or desperately trying to reach customer service agents. For those travelers whose holidays have been ruined, there is no real way for Southwest to make this right. But the company can start by fairly compensating passengers whose flights were canceled, including not only rebooked tickets, ticket refunds, and hotel, meal, and transportation reimbursement, but significant monetary compensation for the disruption to their holiday plans.”

The senators pointed out Southwest can well afford to compensate passengers, given its planned $428 million dividend slated for stockholders next year. Jordan was on track to earn $9 million in total compensation when he took over earlier this year, according to the Morning News.

Employee unions said an October 2021 upheaval was warning enough, and nothing had been done since to ensure it wouldn’t happen again.

With News Wire Services