Spirit Airlines and Alaska Airlines both canceled about 10% of their flights, with much smaller cancellation percentages at American, Delta, United and JetBlue. The size and severity of the storm created havoc for many airlines, although the largest number of canceled flights Tuesday were at airports where Southwest is a major carrier, including Denver, Chicago Midway, Las Vegas, Baltimore and Dallas. He said they offered him and his family each a $250 voucher. The company did respond to a tweet he sent. The family’s luggage is still at the Denver airport, and Burger doesn’t know if he can get a refund for the cruise because the flight to California was booked separately.īurger’s call logs show dozens of unsuccessful attempts to reach Southwest over two days. It’s horrible,” Burger said Tuesday by phone from Salt Lake City, where the family decided to drive after giving up the cruise. The flight was rebooked through Burbank, California, but that flight was canceled while they sat at the gate. 24, but their flight from Denver was canceled without warning. “And that’s exactly how we ended up where we are today.” LINGERING EFFECTSīryce Burger and his family were supposed to be on a cruise to Mexico departing from San Diego on Dec. “So we’ve been chasing our tails, trying to catch up and get back to normal safely, which is our number one priority, as quickly as we could,” he told a news conference late Monday in Houston. Southwest spokesman Jay McVay said the cancellations snowballed as storm systems moved across the country, leaving flight crews and planes out of place. Late Monday, the Transportation Department tweeted that it would examine “Southwest’s unacceptable rate of cancellations” and whether the airline was meeting its legal obligation to help stranded customers. “This is a very catastrophic event.”īuttigieg’s office confirmed that he planned to speak with Montgomery, but declined further comment on the mess at Southwest. “I’m taking it to the highest level - that is how done we are,” said the frustrated Montgomery. Lyn Montgomery, president of the Transport Workers Union representing Southwest flight attendants, was scheduled to talk later Tuesday with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who has criticized airlines for previous disruptions and is now taking an interest in Southwest’s woes. Consumers deserve strong protections, including an updated consumer refund rule.” Many airlines fail to adequately communicate with consumers during flight cancellations. "The Committee will be looking into the causes of these disruptions and its impact to consumers. “The problems at Southwest Airlines over the last several days go beyond weather," a statement from Cantwell's office read. Sen Maria Cantwell, chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, said Tuesday that airline customers "deserve strong protections." Murray said managers resorted this week to asking pilots at some airports to report to a central location, where they wrote down the names of pilots who were present and forwarded the lists to headquarters. The airline didn’t even know where pilots were at.” “The airline cannot connect crews to airplanes. “There is a lot of frustration because this is so preventable,” Murray said. Leaders of unions representing Southwest pilots and flight attendants blamed antiquated crew-scheduling software and criticized company management.Ĭasey Murray, president of the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association, said the airline failed to fix problems that caused a similar meltdown in October 2021. The airline said many pilots and flight attendants were out of position to work their flights. That was after the worst of the storm had passed. The problems began over the weekend and snowballed Monday, when Southwest called off more than 70% of its flights. 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." HOW IT HAPPENED We were fully staffed and prepared for the approaching holiday weekend when the severe weather swept across the continent, where Southwest is the largest carrier in 23 of the top 25 travel markets in the U.S. "We’re working with safety at the forefront to urgently address wide-scale disruption by rebalancing the airline and repositioning crews and our fleet ultimately to best serve all who plan to travel with us. "Our heartfelt apologies for this are just beginning," the airline said in a release. The airline issued a public apology Tuesday afternoon, saying it recognized it had fallen short. Telemundo Houston’s Aidari Riera explains what’s being done to help passengers there. Luggage is piling up at Houston’s Hobby Airport.
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