Southwest Airlines Bearing Brunt of Winter Holiday Flight Cancellations

Southwest Airlines has been feeling the worst of Winter Storm Elliott’s impact across the United States, outranking all other major airlines by number of cancellations due to the storm and the airline’s inability to keep up with the sheer number of delays and cancellations it brought, expected to continue throughout this week in what the airline called “unacceptable” in the latest update on the issue.

In a statement published on Monday, Southwest Airlines apologized to staff and travelers. Those impacted by the cancellations and delays can visit Southwest’s dedicated travel disruption site to help reschedule their flights.

The airline is currently flying at one-third of its flight schedule. The U.S. saw 4,004 canceled flights on Monday, according to flight-tracking website FlightAware.com, 2,909 of which were Southwest flights.

Today, the distance between those two numbers has shortened dramatically, with 2,525 of the nation’s 2,894 canceled flights belonging to Southwest. The airline has already canceled nearly the same number of flights for Wednesday as it has for Tuesday.

Other airlines were impacted by Winter Storm Elliott, with the nation seeing over 4,000 cancellations and over 4,500 delays on Friday, December 23, but other airlines have been able to recover following the bad weather, and currently all are reporting less than 100 canceled flights for Tuesday.

“Our Employees and Crews scheduled to work this holiday season are showing up in every single way. We are beyond grateful for that. Our shared goal is to take care of every single Customer with the Hospitality and Heart for which we’re known,” said the update from Southwest Airlines. “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.”

As always, travelers are advised to check their flight status with their airline prior to arriving at the airport.