Nearly 300 Southwest flights canceled at Midway Airport at start of busy travel week
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The travel nightmare continues on Monday, after a winter storm forced airlines to cancel thousands of flights in and out of Chicago over the past few days, in large part due to a winter storm at the end of last week.
While the snow, wind, and frigid temperatures that came through Thursday and Friday are gone, travel trouble continued on Monday, especially for Southwest Airlines passengers.
A total of 394 flights have been canceled at the city's airports as of 1:45 p.m. Monday; 112 flights at O'Hare International Airport, and 282 at Midway International Airport, according to Flight Aware.
Most of the canceled flights were from Southwest Airlines, which has canceled a total of 283 flights at Midway and 46 at O'Hare – accounting for about 65% of the airline's flights at Midway, and 82% of Southwest flights at O'Hare.
Southwest's problems aren't just confined to Chicago. As of 1:45 p.m., nearly 2,500 Southwest flights have been canceled nationwide, accounting for about 73% of all canceled flights in the U.S.
Some travelers said they got to Midway as early as 3 a.m., just to find out their flight was canceled.
"Our flight was never texted to us that it was canceled by Southwest, and usually they have the decency to at least send us like a, 'Hey, we're canceled,' so we can stay home," Jessica Sokolowski said. "It's a total you-know-what-show here."
Jason Fried drove to Chicago from Philadelphia on Sunday, after his flight there got canceled as he was arriving at the gate, and was able to book a flight out of Chicago for Monday morning.
"I drove here all day yesterday, and then woke up this morning, and the flight from here got canceled," he said. "I feel no emotions right now."
Thankfully, after 7 ½ hours on the phone, 4 of them while standing in line at Midway, he got some good news.
"The phone agent answered the phone as I was getting to the front of the line, but I was relaying messages back and forth, and they ended up finding a flight today, direct this afternoon. Hopefully it happens. Hopefully we make it," Fried said.
Southwest Airlines has not responded to requests for comment on the number of canceled flights at Midway and O'Hare.
The entire weekend was filled with travel trouble for people across the country trying to get to their holiday destinations.
More than 800 flights were canceled at O'Hare and Midway on both Thursday and Friday, with more than 670 flights canceled on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
Travel experts have said Monday and Tuesday will be the busiest travel days of the week for the airports, and have suggested travelers book flights on Wednesday or Thursday, if possible.