More than 2,300 Southwest flights already canceled for Thursday
Mass flight disruptions at Southwest Airlines continued on Thursday, with the carrier canceling more than 2,300 flights.
Southwest’s 2,356 cancellations comprise the vast majority of the 2,443 total canceled flights within, into or out of the U.S. as of Thursday morning, according to FlightAware.
The carrier’s cancellations include 58 percent of its schedule, which is on par with levels seen over the past few days as Southwest repositions its planes and crews following a massive winter storm.
Although most other airlines have recovered from the storm-related disruptions, Southwest’s struggling scheduling system and other issues have caused a multiday meltdown of its operations, leaving thousands of passengers stranded.
Southwest had warned that the disruptions would continue for multiple days, and the CEO issued a video apology. The airline has so far only canceled 39 flights for Friday, according to FlightAware.
The issues have attracted heavy scrutiny from Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee Chairwoman Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.).
“In order to restore that relationship with their customers, Southwest is going to have to not only make them financially whole but find a way to really rebuild trust and confidence,” Buttigieg said on ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Wednesday.
Buttigieg has demanded Southwest commit to providing affected passengers with meal vouchers and hotel accommodations as well as refunds for those who decide not to travel.
His department previously began efforts to strengthen federal airline refund regulations, but a group of 34 bipartisan state attorneys general has said the initiative does not go far enough.
“Consumers deserve strong protections, including an updated consumer refund rule,” Cantwell said in a statement this week.