Southwest expects normal operations to resume Friday; union blames outdated technology for fiasco
CHICAGO (CBS) -- After canceling approximately two-thirds of its flights over the past several days, Southwest Airlines said it expects to resume normal flight operations on Friday, ahead of the New Year's holiday weekend.
"We are encouraged by the progress we've made to realign Crew, their schedules, and our fleet. With another holiday weekend full of important connections for our valued Customers and Employees, we are eager to return to a state of normalcy," the company said in a statement Thursday. "We know even our deepest apologies – to our Customers, to our Employees, and to all affected through this disruption – only go so far."
The airline has canceled thousands of flights each of the past several days, but according to flight tracking website Flight Aware, has canceled only 39 flights nationwide on Friday.
Meantime, as CBS 2's Sabrina Franza reported, there was much less luggage stacked up in baggage claim at Midway International Airport late Wednesday than there was a night before. Southwest said it is moving the bags to a more secure location before they are reunited with their owners.
Meanwhile, a flight attendant and union vice president has a perspective on the woes at Southwest that we have not heard before.
Some people waited hours Wednesday to get their stuff, while others took matters into their own hands to come look for it.
Vanessa Cribbs succeeded in finding her own stuff – though not all of it.
"I found my own stuff – way on the other side of the board," she said, "and I told them, I said: 'This is mine! This is mine!'"
Stories of being separated from personal effects have been surfacing over and over again from Southwest travelers these past few days.
"I'm so out of breath, but I don't have that much oxygen," said LaWauna Grimes.
Grimes waited and worried at Midway Wednesday while her oxygen tank ran low.
"I just don't know what to do. I have a way to go - maybe about three and a half, four hours," she said, "but when you're on 20 percent of oxygen, you can't do anything but pray."
Luggage and passengers remain stranded on Southwest, with the airline still not having recovered from the winter storm last week.
"This is something different," said flight attendant Corliss King. "This is something that exposes the real issues with our operations."
In addition to being a flight attendant, King is the vice president of Transport Workers Union Local 556, the union that represents flight attendants for Southwest. She offered a story we have not yet heard when it comes to a possible explanation for all the chaos.
"We have 1999 technology for 2023 flying," King said.
King said the union has been raising the alarm on outdated technology – with no results – until last week's winter storm and cancellations overwhelmed the system.
Franza: "Because the technology couldn't keep up, your efforts to keep up also failed?"
King: "Absolutely. And when you lose communication with our management and with our company, that's when you have a flight attendant who are out of place. They think that you're in Boise, but you're actually in Houston."
This Christmas, King says her team was just as displaced as Ms. Cribbs' remaining luggage.
"They don't know where you are. We don't have hotels," King said. "So we slept in the airport with our passengers."
Midway International Airport said Southwest hopes to be fully operational there by the weekend. The airport also said the airline assured them they would reimburse reasonable incident expenses like hotels for travelers caught in the mess between Dec. 24 and Jan. 2.
This is the full statement from the Chicago Department of Aviation:
"Members of the traveling public remain rightly concerned and anxious about holiday travel given the ongoing situation involving Southwest Airlines, the largest carrier at Midway International Airport.
"The CDA is committed to ensuring that travelers have the information they need to get to their destination safely, and is therefore providing the following updates:
- Southwest has increased their overall operations by approximately 20% in the last two days, and based on frequent discussion with Southwest officials, the airline expects to be back at 100% by this weekend.
- Southwest has assured the CDA that all baggage being stored in Midway baggage claim will be removed and placed into a secure facility by the end of the day today before continuing on to its final destination
- Additional CDA security personnel from O'Hare continue to be deployed to Midway on a round-the-clock basis to ensure the baggage claim area remains secure
- Southwest has assured the CDA that every flight disruption between Saturday, Dec. 24, 2022, and Monday, Jan. 2, 2023, will be considered "controllable" and the airline will therefore reimburse "reasonable" incidental expenses, including hotels, rental cars, meals, tickets on another airline, etc.
- For flights canceled since Saturday, Dec. 24, 2022, Southwest has assured the CDA that the airline will fully refund the fare and any unused ancillary charges
"The CDA will continue to urge Southwest to better communicate with the public and further extend its policies on reimbursements and cancellations."
"Finally, the CDA continues to ask passengers flying Southwest Airlines to check their flight status before heading to the airport, and to visit southwest.com/traveldisruption for additional updates from the airline.
"Additional information on lost or delayed baggage is available from the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) at transportation.gov, and other resources are available on the DOT's Aviation Consumer Protection website at transportation.gov/airconsumer."
Digging into the numbers, Southwest canceled more than 2,500 flights across the country throughout the day on Wednesday, accounting for more than 86 percent of all canceled flights in the U.S. So far on Thursday, Southwest has canceled more than 2,300 flights nationwide, accounting for more than 95% of all canceled flights into or out of the U.S.
Southwest canceled 231 flights into or out of Midway on Wednesday, or about 52 percent of its flights at the airport, and was the only airline to cancel flights at Midway. Southwest has canceled another 217 flights into or out of Midway on Thursday, or about half of its flights there, and again is the only airline canceling flights at Midway.