Commerce Committee chair vows to look into Southwest debacle

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), the chairwoman of the Senate Commerce Committee, vowed on Tuesday to look into Southwest Airlines amid mass flight cancellations and delays.

Winter weather delayed and cancelled flights across the country over the last several days as many passengers tried to get home for the holidays, but Southwest alone canceled more than 2,900 flights on Monday and another 2,500 flights on Tuesday.

“The problems at Southwest Airlines over the last several days go beyond weather. The Committee will be looking into the causes of these disruptions and its impact to consumers,” Cantwell said in a Twitter post.

“Many airlines fail to adequately communicate with consumers during flight cancellations. Consumers deserve strong protections, including an updated consumer refund rule,” the senator said.

The Southwest’s stock had fallen nearly 5 percent as of Tuesday afternoon amid outrage over the issues. 

The U.S. Department of Transportation said Monday it was “concerned by Southwest’s unacceptable rate of cancellations and delays & reports of lack of prompt customer service” — and plans to probe whether Southwest could have controlled the cancellations. 

Two of Cantwell’s fellow Commerce Committee Democrats, Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), released a statement Tuesday saying the cancellations should be considered “controllable” and that Southwest should compensate affected passengers.

“For those travelers whose holidays have been ruined, there is no real way for Southwest to make this right. But the company can start by fairly compensating passengers whose flights were canceled, including not only rebooked tickets, ticket refunds, and hotel, meal, and transportation reimbursement, but significant monetary compensation for the disruption to their holiday plans,” Markey and Blumenthal wrote in the joint statement.

“Southwest cannot avoid compensating passengers by claiming these flight cancellations were caused by recent winter storms. As Southwest executives have acknowledged, the mass cancellations yesterday were largely due to the failure of its own internal systems,” the senators said.