More than 226 flights, mostly Southwest, canceled out of BWI Airport Tuesday

BALTIMORE - More than 200 flights are canceled at BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport on Tuesday, making traveling a challenge for thousands of passengers.

According to FlightAware, 226 flights in and out of BWI have been canceled, along with 22 delays.

More than 210 of those fights are by Southwest Airlines.

As of 7:30 a.m. Eastern time Tuesday, Southwest had canceled 62 percent of its flights nationwide as of Tuesday morning, while 88% of the remaining flights were delayed, according to flight tracking website FlightAware.com.    

On Monday, there were more than 250 flight cancelations and more than 100 delayed flights at BWI Thurgood Marshall airport.     

BWI had hundreds of cancelations throughout the weekend, mostly on flights coming from the Midwest.

In a statement, Southwest Airlines said in part that now that the weather is considerably more favorable, they are working to stabilize and improve their operation, and they are accommodating as many customers as possible.

Talia Jones, a Southwest Air customer, told CBS DFW she was "beyond frustrated and hurt because I can't see my dad. So yeah, it's very disappointing." 

On Monday afternoon, the board at Dallas Love Field, showed every single arrival had been canceled, according to reporter Kelly Laco.

At Chicago's Midway International Airport — where Southwest is the main carrier — the wait times were high, and patience was running low Monday night, CBS Chicago said.

The situation was described by one traveler as nothing short of a mess. In addition to long lines taking up space, hundreds and hundreds of bags were waiting to be claimed as the cancellations and delays kept piling up.

"Its been insane here i tried two different flights and everyone is cancelled.. i've been here since 12 o clock" said traveler Defrederick Fagan.   

Another traveler, Patrick Graham said he and his family were scheduled to fly back to Baltimore from Vegas on Christmas Eve.  Three days later, and another thousand dollars spent on airfare, they're finally back home - but their luggage is nowhere to be found. 

"Why isn't it all hands on deck out here why don't they have employees out here at least helping guiding at least giving us information.. something" said Graham. 

The U.S. Department of Transportation released a statement on Southwest's cancellations:

"USDOT is concerned by Southwest's unacceptable rate of cancellations and delays & reports of lack of prompt customer service. The Department will examine whether cancellations were controllable and if Southwest is complying with its customer service plan."