“I conveyed to the CEO our expectation that they going to go above and beyond to take care of passengers and to address this,” he said. The secretary said he told CEO Jordan that he expects Southwest to proactively offer refunds and expense reimbursement to affected passengers without them having to ask. “From what I can tell, Southwest is unable to locate even where their own crews are, let alone their own passengers, let alone baggage,” said Buttigieg, adding that he also spoke with leaders of the airline’s unions representing flight attendants and pilots. Southwest has blamed the travel disaster on a combination of factors, including winter storm delays, aggressive flight scheduling and outdated infrastructure. Today’s cancellations followed a full day of post-Christmas travel chaos, with 3,989 flights canceled on Monday – 2,909 of those being Southwest flights. There were more than 7,000 delays as of 11:45 p.m. That was almost two-thirds of all Southwest flights for Tuesday and a stunning 84% of all canceled flights in the United States.īy contrast, competitors Alaska Airlines had 10% of its flights canceled and United Airlines had only 3%.Īirports most affected by the Tuesday cancellations have been Denver International, followed by Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas, Chicago Midway International, Baltimore/Washington International, Nashville International and Dallas Love Field. Of those canceled flights, some 2,691 were those of Southwest. ET, according to flight tracking website FlightAware. Latest flight cancellation and delay figuresĪ look at current numbers show why Buttigieg is so concerned.Īlmost 3,200 flights within, into or out of the United States have been canceled for Tuesday as of 11:45 p.m. Out of the more than 2,680 cancellations already made for Wednesday, nearly all of them belong to Southwest.Īll other US airlines together account for just roughly 155 of those cancellations. But those hopes – so far – are being dashed. Passengers booked with beleaguered Southwest Airlines have been hoping for some much-needed relief on cancellations and delays. “I made clear that our department will be holding them accountable for their responsibilities to customers, both to get them through this situation and to make sure that this can’t happen again.” “Their system really has completely melted down,” Buttigieg told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Tuesday. He spoke directly to Southwest CEO Bob Jordan on Tuesday about the thousands of flights that have been canceled this week with no immediate indication of when passengers can rebook. Southwest Airline’s operational meltdown has put the Dallas-headquartered company under serious scrutiny – not only from stranded passengers and media reports but from US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg as well.
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