Southwest Airlines is facing another day of temple-throbbing cancelations and delays, with tracker FlightAware showing thousands within, into our out of the U.S. on Thursday morning.
On the Texas-based airline, the website said that 58%, or more than 2,350 flights, had been canceled and 56 had been delayed.
In an update on Wednesday evening, the airline apologized again for the widespread travel disruptions – to both customers and workers – and announced new resources for fliers experiencing these holiday woes.
“We’ve let our Customers and Employees down, and we pledge to do everything we can to make it right,” a tweet said.
Southwest had explained on Tuesday that it was recovering from operational challenges following consecutive days of extreme winter weather and CEO Bob Jordan said the airline was doing everything possible to return to normal operation.
In a video address, Jordan said that airplanes and flight crews had been out of position as Southwest contended with a busy holiday weekend, leading to the decision to “significantly reduce [Southwest’s] flying.”
“We’re focused on safely getting all of the pieces back into position to end this rolling struggle,” Jordan asserted, voicing his pride and respect for his employees.
“The tools we use to recover from disruption serve us well 99% of the time, but clearly we need to double down on our already existing plans to upgrade systems for these extreme circumstances, so that we never again face what’s happening right now,” he added.
The New York Times reported Thursday that Southwest relies on a different organizational structure than most other airlines and had scheduling issues.
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Jordan said that he was in contact with U.S. Department of Transportation Sec. Pete Buttigieg, sharing what the airline was doing to “make things right” for customers – and a Southwest statement the same day said for employees – and that he was optimistic that Southwest would be back on track before next week.
The Transportation Department had tweeted on Monday that it was concerned by the disruption and would look into whether “cancellations were controllable and if Southwest is complying with its customer service plan.”
“Because what we’re seeing right now, from the system and the flights themselves to the inability to reach anybody on a customer service phone line, it is just completely unacceptable,” Buttigieg told CBS on Wednesday, noting to ABC that the department would “mount an extraordinary effort” to ensure the airline would meet obligations.
More than 91% of all canceled flights in the U.S. early that day were from Southwest, per FlightAware.
Speaking on Fox Business Network’s “Mornings with Maria,” Captain Michael Santoro – the Vice President of the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association – said Thursday that scheduling software had “basically crashed” and the problem “snowballed from there.”
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He said, on Wednesday, the airline’s leader saw a “significant improvement,” with hopes to be “fully recovered” over the weekend – but that no one has reached out regarding a recovery plan.
“So, it’s incredibly frustrating for us,” he noted.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.