Thousands of passengers have been stranded across the country as airlines, especially Southwest Airlines, continue to work to recover from delays and cancellations from a historic Christmas blizzard.
On Monday, more than 3,800 flights were canceled, according to FlightAware.com, and Southwest Airlines had a majority of those cancellations with more than 2,800.
“As the storm continued to sweep across the country, it continued to impact many of our larger stations, and so the cancellations just compiled one after another – to 100 (flights), to 150, to 1,000,” said Jay McVay of Southwest Airlines.
McVay said all those cancellations left airplanes and flight crews out of place and not in the cities and airports needed to continue normal operations.
“That is ultimately exactly how we ended up where we are,” McVay said. “It’s trying to get out flight crews back into cities where they need to be to operate our flight schedule and then re-accommodate everyone that we can.”
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So far on Tuesday, Southwest Airlines has canceled more than 2,500 flights or 63% of its scheduled flights.
More than 4,000 flights were originally scheduled on Tuesday, but between the delayed cancellations, 65% of flights have been impacted so far.
“We anticipate additional changes with an already reduced level of flights as we approach the coming New Year holiday travel period,” a Southwest Airlines spokesperson said. “Additionally, 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.”
Many of the issues were in Denver, where passengers waited hours to be rebooked on later flights.
This comes days after Southwest Airlines said it was operating under a “State of Operational Emergency” on Christmas Eve, according to a report from FOX 31 in Denver.
But it wasn’t only passengers that were left stranded.
Southwest Airlines said its employees have also been severely impacted by the winter storm.
“Our Employees have been affected in many ways, including being limited to the amount of time they can safely work outside in extreme temperatures and wind chills that dipped well below zero degrees Fahrenheit in places such as Denver and Chicago – two of our largest bases of operations,” a Southwest Airlines spokesperson said in a statement. “However, the Southwest Team continues to show up for each other and our Customers.”
Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD), Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) and LaGuardia Airport (LGA) also saw major travel issues on Monday.
If your flight gets canceled, most airlines will rebook you on the next available flight to your destination – as long as seats are available. But if your flight is canceled, and you choose to forgo the planned trip, you’re entitled to a refund for any unused portion of your flight – even if the flight is non-refundable, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.
In addition, you’re also entitled to get your money back for any bag fees or extras, such as a seat assignment.
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The winter storm has been causing quite a bit of chaos for holiday travelers, and for people traveling on Southwest Airlines, it doesn’t look like things will be back to normal for at least the next few days.
While the winter storm has also impacted other airlines such as Delta, United and American, Southwest was particularly hard-hit with delays and cancellations.
There are at least two reasons for this.
“One of the reasons has been due to weather,” FOX Weather meteorologist Jason Frazer said. “The other reason is how Southwest operates as an airline.”
Frazer said airlines such as United, Delta and American use a hub and spoke system.
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With the hub and spoke system, airlines will send flights from Atlanta to St. Louis, for example. Or Atlanta to Omaha, Nebraska or Atlanta to Oklahoma City.
“With Southwest, they work a little bit differently,” Frazer said. “They will take flights from Atlanta. One flight will move from Atlanta to St. Louis. That same flight will then move from St. Louis to Omaha. From Omaha, that same flight will move from Omaha to Oklahoma City.”
So, if that flight from Atlanta to St. Louis is canceled, it will have a trickle-down effect, impacting passengers in St. Louis, Omaha, Oklahoma City and beyond.