Cancellations and delays continue to affect travelers across the country trying to get home after the holiday weekend, particularly those flying with Southwest Airlines.
As of Tuesday morning, 2,944 flights within, into or out of the United States were canceled, 2547 of which are Southwest Airlines flights, according toFlightAware, a flight tracking website. On Monday, 2,909 of the 4,006 canceled flights were Southwest.
A whopping 63% of Southwest Airlines’s Tuesday flights have been canceled, whereas the second most affected U.S. airline, Spirit, has only canceled 10% of its flights, FlightAware reported.
Yuki Iwamura/AP/Shutterstock
AFlightAware spokesperson told CNNthat Southwest scheduled too quick of turnaround times for flights which can “bog things down.” Plus, rising cases of COVID-19, flu and RSV caused employees to call out sick.
The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) announced on Monday night that they are taking the matter seriously and will be investigating Southwest Airlines’s “unacceptable rate of cancellations.”
In a statement from the official USDOT Twitter, the organization says, “The Department will examine whether cancellations were controllable and if Southwest is complying with its customer service plan.”
Astatement on the airline’s websiteposted on Monday addressed how “continuing challenges” are affecting their customers and employees.
“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,” the statement read.
The statement goes on to explain how the airline was fully staffed and prepared for the busy holiday travels butthe severe winter stormgreatly impacted their operations. It also thanks the Southwest Airlines employees and crews for their work and apologizes to them and to customers for these disruptions.
“On the other side of this, we’ll work to make things right for those we’ve let down, including our employees. With no concern higher than ultimate safety, the people of Southwest share a goal to take care of each and every customer. We recognize falling short and sincerely apologize,” the statement concluded.
The dangers of the historic winter storm continue as thedeath toll rises to 49 people, as of Tuesday morning. More than half of the victims are in Buffalo, N.Y. where 50 inches of snow have left communities without power and stalled emergency responders.
source: people.com
