Southwest Airlines Releases Statement on Latest Issues

After several days of flight delays and cancellations, Southwest Airlines issued an official statement apologizing for the travel disruptions.

Southwest officials said inclement weather and air traffic control disruptions in Florida created the problems that began on Friday, which led to nearly 2,000 canceled flights and hundreds of delays through Sunday.

On Monday, FlightAware.com reported that over 430 flights were canceled and over 1,500 more were delayed, with service at major airports in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Honolulu, Orlando and Phoenix was impacted by the issues.

The travel disruptions were largely resolved by Tuesday, with only 220 flights delayed as of 8:30 a.m. ET, according to FlightAware.

As a result, Southwest released a statement addressing the issues faced by the carrier:

Southwest Airlines extends a tremendous apology to our customers and employees for the flight cancellations and delays which occurred over the weekend and on Monday.

On Friday evening, the airline ended the day with numerous cancellations, primarily created by weather and other external constraints, which left aircraft and crews out of pre-planned positions to operate our schedule on Saturday. Unfortunately, the out-of-place aircraft and continued strain on our crew resources created additional cancelations across our point-to-point network that cascaded throughout the weekend and into Monday.

Southwest teams have been working diligently to restore stability to the network, and we are experiencing less disruptions on Monday. We hope to restore our full schedule as soon as possible. As a note, the operational challenges were not a result of Southwest employee demonstrations.

To every customer that experienced a cancellation or delay, Southwest offers our sincerest regret regarding disrupted travel plans, and we look forward to a future opportunity to demonstrate our safe, reliable, friendly, and legendary Southwest Hospitality – something that customers should always expect from Southwest Airlines.