Travelers dealt with widespread difficulties in the lead-up to the Christmas holiday weekend as a winter storm pummeled the U.S., but even as some of the effects of the storm lingered, much of the travel disruptions were expected to be cleared by this week -- except for those who flew on Southwest Airlines.
The airline reported a "disproportionate" amount of cancellations compared to other major carriers as the post-holiday travel rush began.
It canceled more than 70% of its flights Monday, more than 60% on Tuesday, and warned that it would operate just over a third of its usual schedule in the days ahead to allow crews to get back to where they needed to be.
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American, United, Delta and JetBlue, suffered cancellation rates of between none and 2% by Tuesday.
In fact, of the 2,890 flight cancellations in the U.S. early Tuesday, 2,522 were called off by Southwest.
“We had a tough day today. In all likelihood we’ll have another tough day tomorrow as we work our way out of this,” Southwest CEO Bob Jordan told The Wall Street Journal in an interview Monday evening. “This is the largest scale event that I’ve ever seen.”
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The disparity has triggered a closer look at Southwest operations by the U.S. Department of Transportation, which called the rate of cancellations “unacceptable," and sought to ensure that the carrier was sticking by its obligations to stranded customers.
How this happened, according to a Southwest pilot
Cpt. Tom Nekouei, Second Vice President of the Southwest Airlines Pilot Association (SWAPA) spoke with NBC 7's Kelvin Henry about how the airline got to this point.
Frigid temperatures did affect procedures, Cpt. Nekouei said. However, other airlines like United were not as affected while using the same exact systems in the same cities, he said.
Weather has hit them hard, but internal issues are making the problem worse, Cpt. Nekouei explained. Specifically, Southwest's scheduling department's philosophy and software causes massive reassignments of pilots and flight attendants, Cpt. Nekouei said.
"The execution of getting those pilots and flight attendants to the airplanes to fly them -- is a complete failure," he said.
Nekouei referenced Southwest's "Columbus Day meltdown" of October 2021 and mentioned that these situations were getting harder and harder to recover from.
"We had massive, massive reassignments. Over that weekend where the company lost $75 million in lost revenue, we had 33% of our pilots who were on duty, but never flew an airplane because they were either in the back of an airplane trying to get positioned to an airplane to fly or they were stuck in a hotel and could not contact crew scheduling or get to an airplane to fly," he explained.
"So that's the biggest catalyst," Cpt. Nekouei said.
"This is, it's an infrastructure issue for us when you, when you think about it," Cpt. Nekouei said. Southwest needs to increase investment into itself, he summed up.
Cpt. Nekouei said that while many airlines use a hub-and-point system – which funnels flights through big bases – Southwest's point-to-point system is hurting them.
"What we do with Southwest, what we've done from our inception has been, we go from Austin to San Antonio to Dallas, we go from Denver to Colorado Springs to Albuquerque, and that point-to-point system is something that the legacies don't do, they have the ability to cancel flights in the hub and then recover in the hubs," said Cpt. Nekouei.
On top of passenger issues, Cpt. Nekouei said that the airline is even losing track of staff.
"This is the first post, kind of pandemic holiday where people are actually able and willing to travel and when you strand people on Christmas Day and Christmas Eve, but they, they don't get to see their families over Christmas, which they've planned for a year, maybe more. Our concern is that those customers have long memories. They're not going to come back to Southwest," said Cpt. Nekouei.
How this happened, according to Southwest Airlines
Southwest Airlines apologized Monday for operational challenges at San Diego International Airport and other airports nationwide due to an intense winter storm, promising it is working to recover.
"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," Southwest said in a news release Monday. "We are working with safety at the forefront to urgently address wide- scale disruption by re-balancing the airline and repositioning crews and our fleet, ultimately to best serve all who plan to travel with us. And our heartfelt apologies for this are just beginning."
The airline said it was fully staffed late last week and prepared for the approaching Christmas weekend when severe weather swept across the continent.
"This forced daily changes to our flight schedule at a volume and magnitude that still has the tools our teams use to recover the airline operating at capacity," Southwest said. "This safety-first work is intentional, ongoing, and necessary to return to normal reliability, one that minimizes last-minute inconveniences."
Southwest admitted anticipating "additional challenges with an already reduced level of flights as we approach the coming New Year's holiday travel period, and we are working to reach out to customers whose travel plans will change with specific information and their available options."
The airline plans to operate at about one-third of their normal schedule in the next few days, Chris Perry with Southwest Airlines announced Monday night.
"This will help us to reposition flight crews who are out of position," Perry added.
Southwest added its employees and crews "are showing up in every single way. We are beyond grateful for that. Our shared goal is to take care of every single customer with the hospitality and heart for which we are known. On the other side of this, we will work to make things right for those we have let down, including our employees."
What's next?
While Southwest picks up the pieces, customers are continuing to fight their way to their destinations. Southwest has created a website to help people either get a refund or rebook, but lines still remain at many airports with people figuring out their next steps.
Southwest has even more problems, the Department of Transportation wrote in a tweet. "The Department will examine whether cancellations were controllable and if Southwest is complying with its customer service plan."
For those holding out hope, it doesn't appear like things will be getting better soon.
Southwest said it anticipates "additional changes with an already reduced level of flights as we approach the coming New Year holiday travel period."
"As we continue the work to recover our operation, we have made the decision to continue operating a reduced schedule by flying roughly one third of our schedule for the next several days," the statement read.
It goes on to say that they are "working to reach customers whose travel plans will change."
"On the other side of this, we’ll work to make things right for those we’ve let down, including our Employees," the statement concludes. "We recognize falling short and sincerely apologize."
According to Southwest Airlines' website, "Customers holding any Southwest reservation from Sunday, December 25 through Monday, January 2, may rebook in the original class of service or travel standby (within 14 days of their original date of travel between the original city-pairs and in accordance with our accommodation procedures) without paying any additional charge."
