Southwest Airlines Returns to Normal Operations

After about a week of mass cancellations and operating at one-third of the airline’s operating schedule due to Winter Storm Elliott that snowballed into an operating failure, Southwest Airlines announced that it is once again back on track and operating its normal schedule as of Friday.

Over 2,000 flights were canceled each day this week by the airline as it struggled to recover normal operations, the most number of cancellations by any airline in the world this week.

The airline’s executives, CCO Ryan Green and CEO Bob Jordan, both expressed their apologies while working to provide assistance to those impacted on their websites, promising to recover lost baggage, refund travelers’ canceled flights and pay for any related costs, such as lodging, transportation and food associated with the delays and cancellations.

The latest update also points to the future as it agrees that there is still much to be done before the issues are solved: “We look forward to the opportunity to address any needs of our customers over the coming days as we strive to return to our previous level of Southwest Hospitality and reliability.”

The cancellations were considered “unacceptable” by U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, calling on the airline to issue customers refunds and provide assistance: “At a minimum there needs to be cash refunds for the canceled flights, and they need to be taking care of passengers where they got stuck with meals, hotel compensation.”