Southwest Airlines, caught in a nasty tangle of misplaced staff and technical issues since last week’s winter storm, was still not free from the ongoing debacle on Thursday, with more than 2,300 of its daily flights canceled.
The cancellations, which accounted for 58 percent of the airline’s scheduled flights on Thursday, came several days after other airlines recovered from the storm. The operational and PR crisis has left thousands of travelers stranded, baffled employees and corporate officials on the defensive, hoping to avoid long-term damage to Southwest’s reputation.
Southwest Chief Commercial Officer Ryan Green said in a video statement Wednesday that the airline “promised to do everything we can and work day and night to repair our relationship with you.”
“My personal apology is the first step in making things right after many plans changed and experiences fell short of your expectations of us,” he said.
The meltdown was sparked by a severe winter storm that disrupted every airline in the busy travel days leading up to Christmas. But Southwest relies on a different organizational structure than most other airlines, making it more difficult to recover from disruptions, and had technical difficulties in its complicated scheduling system. (Read more about why and how the chaos unfolded.)
In an interview on “Good Morning America” on Wednesday, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said of Southwest, “We’re past the point where they can say this is a weather-induced problem.”
He added: “What this indicates is a system failure and they need to ensure that these stranded passengers get to where they need to go and that they receive adequate compensation.”
As officials scrambled to restore normal operation, customers were left far from home and frustrated with the lack of progress or the ability to contact customer service for assistance. Some had to spend more than $1,000 for tickets on other airlines, or to secure rental cars for road trips across the country. Barclay Cunningham, 51, said she had to borrow a car from her father for a 14-hour drive from St. Louis to Philadelphia, and she wasn’t sure how she was going to get it back to him yet.
For Elise Benitez and her husband, their homecoming for Christmas was blocked by a relentless series of missteps.
After arriving at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport to fly home on December 24, they learned that their flight had been canceled due to staff shortages. They had been rebooked on a flight from Baltimore, about an hour away, for the following morning, Christmas Day.
When they arrived at the Baltimore airport, the flight was repeatedly delayed. After an eight-hour delay, it was cancelled.
“We spent all of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at the airport,” says Ms Benitez, 57, who works as a real estate agent. “What a nightmare.”
The couple received vouchers from Southwest to stay at a hotel that night, and booked a rental car online from the Baltimore airport that they planned to drive back to Orlando. But when they went to collect the rental car, it was not available. Finally, Mrs. Benitez’s brother, whom they had visited in Virginia, found them a rental car there, picked them up from Baltimore, and dropped them off at the rental company in Virginia.
Ms. Benitez and her husband drove 12 hours back to Orlando and arrived home on Tuesday, where they finally opened their Christmas presents, she said. Southwest “did give us vouchers, but that can’t make up for the loss of your time or the joy or the Christmas spirit,” she said.
