Southwest Airlines leaves many Milwaukee passengers after canceling more than 60 flights in and out of Mitchell airport since Sunday

Southwest Airlines cancelled two-thirds of its flights on Tuesday creating huge headaches for travelers at Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport where the airline is the dominant carrier.

According to FlightAware data, as of Tuesday morning, Southwest had canceled 31 flights into or out of Mitchell. It's the only airline to have canceled a flight at the airport. Nationwide, the carrier canceled about two thirds of its schedule Monday and Tuesday.

From Sunday through Tuesday more than 60 Southwest Airlines flights in or out of Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport were cancelled. Southwest has roughly 37% market share in Milwaukee.

“I put my credit card in the kiosk and found out (the flight) was canceled,” Milwaukee resident Curtis Williams said. “I checked earlier this morning at like 6 o’clock because I heard about all of these cancellations... it said it was fine. I get here and now it’s flashing 'cancelled.'”

Southwest said many of its more than 1,000 flights would be canceled or delayed Tuesday due to lingering effects from the winter storm that gripped much of the country last week.

“My whole vacation is ruined because they said they’re not even flying out until the 31^st or the first,” Williams said. “My vacation ends the first.”

'The largest scale event I've ever seen'

The airline is trying to "work our way out of this" rough week for traveling, Southwest CEO Bob Jordan said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.

"This is the largest scale event that I've ever seen," Jordan said.

Michael Santoro, vice president of the Southwest Airlines Pilot Association, offered a different reason for why flights were cancelled.

"Our IT for our scheduling software is vastly outdated," Santoro said in an interview with Politico. "It can't handle the number of pilots, flight attendants that we have in the system... we don't have the normal hub and spoke like the other major airlines do.

"We fly a point-to-point network, which can put our crews in the wrong places without airplanes. Mismatched and that's what happened. Our software can't keep track of it. They don't know where we are. They don't know where airplanes are and it's frustration for pilots, for flight attendants and especially for our passengers."

FlightAware, a flight data service, reported 3,543 cancellations across the country the day after Christmas. Southwest alone accounted for most of these cancellations — 2,643.

President Joe Biden said on Tuesday his administration plans to hold airlines "accountable" for the cancelations during the past few days.

'There was no email'

At the Milwaukee airport, a chaotic cross-section of individuals faced canceled flights, missing luggage and other woes. Passengers arriving on one Southwest flight were greeted by hundreds of travelers lined up trying to work out various travel issues.

Luggage was piling up at Mitchell as delayed connecting flights mean passengers are not yet in Milwaukee to claim them.

Many travelers were frustrated with the lack of communication from the airline about their flight status.

“There was no email, no notification, no nothing,” Thomas Williams, not related to Curtis, said. “Customer services is definitely not the forefront of their attention.”

Williams and his family flew up from Atlanta to spend time with family in Reedsburg during the holiday weekend. With work looming, they made the drive back to Milwaukee to find out their flight was canceled.

“It’s frustrating,” Thomas Williams said. “Everyone wants to get back home in a reasonable amount of time and when you don’t know your flight is canceled until you arrive, it’s pretty maddening.”

Like many people, they scrambled to find a backup plan with different airlines and airports, but those were quickly disappearing.

“Delta is sold out already for today and tomorrow already, for here and Madison,” Thomas Williams said.

Frustrated passengers took to social media describing multiple-hour wait times to talk to a Southwest attendant. Other passengers simply gave up on flying altogether.

Daniel Lira was hoping to fly from Milwaukee to see his family in Houston, but after five delays and an eventually canceled flight, he decided it was more convenient to make the almost 18-hour drive instead.

More:Time lapse of the Dec. 22 winter storm in downtown Milwaukee

“Looked at possible rebooking but nothing was available until Thursday or Friday," Lira said. "With having to get back to work, and pets that need to be picked up sooner rather than later, we made decision to rent a car and start driving out this evening."

More:Here’s how much snow fell in Wisconsin and how the storm forecast has changed

Flight to Kansas 'disappeared' for Milwaukee traveler

Milwaukee resident Katrina Hull was able to fly out of Milwaukee to St. Louis on Sunday hoping to get to her parents' house in Wichita, Kansas.

Her flight in St. Louis was delayed and then mysteriously “disappeared” which she now considers a “bad omen” for her travel to Kansas.

Hull rented a car and drove her 11-year-old twin children six hours to Wichita.

“They did amazing considering the situation,” Hull said.

Hull said she felt like she was participating in a “choose your own adventure” style game having to decide to leave the airport and her check-in luggage behind, or stay in hopes things will change.

“I’ve been delayed for bad weather before and slept on the airport floor and flew out at 3 a.m., that sort of thing,” Hull said. “I didn’t expect there to be such widespread cancellations.”

While the cancellations caused a massive inconvenience, a spontaneous community of sorts developed in the shared struggle of the travelers.

“I did see a lot of good in people (Monday),” Hull said. “The way passengers were coming together, helping each other out, sharing information...There was some sort of redeeming humanity in the unrest of the southwest meltdown”

Hull is planning to drive her rental car back to St. Louis and then take a different rental car to get to Milwaukee.

“It’s not through Southwest so I don’t have any reason to believe (the rental car) will disappear,” Hull said.

Airline pledges to help passengers

Southwest said that it was working to “re-accommodate as many customers as possible, based on available space.”

“We are still experiencing disruptions across our network as a result of Winter Storm Elliott’s lingering effects on the totality of our operation. With the weather now considerably more favorable, we continue to work to stabilize and improve our operation,” a Southwest spokesperson said.

Moreover, passengers like Lira have found getting refunds difficult as they cannot reach the airline to inquire about one because the airline is getting so many calls.

As cancellations spread around the country Southwest released a statement saying the cancellations affected "customers and employees in a significant way that is unacceptable."

After apologizing, the airline said it is working to rebook flights in a matter that will allow passengers and staff to have a smooth experience as the busy holiday travel season continues.

Southwest Airlines has also announced that travelers looking to reschedule flights might have to wait until Dec. 31 for a new flight.

"We anticipate additional changes with an already reduced level of flights as we approach the coming New Year holiday travel period."

Travel mess to draw federal review

In response to Southwest’s post Christmas meltdown the United States Department of Transportation announced it would be reviewing the airline.

In a tweet the department said it was doing so “it is concerned by Southwest’s unacceptable rate of cancellations and delays & reports of lack of prompt customer service. The Department will examine whether cancellations were controllable and if Southwest is complying with its customer service plan.”

Southwest spokesman Jay McVay said at a press conference in Houston that cancelations accumulated as storm systems moved across the country, leaving flight crews and planes out of place

“So we’ve been chasing our tails, trying to catch up and get back to normal safely, which is our number one priority as quickly as we could,” he said. "And that’s exactly how we ended up where we are today.”

Nationally Southwest has already canceled more than 60% of its flights, signaling that the high rate of cancelations that has shrouded the company in controversy may continue into the near future.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

More:How to keep safe if you have to drive, travel in Wisconsin during a winter storm

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Over 60 Southwest flights canceled in, out of Milwaukee Mitchell