Southwest Airlines Experiences Slew Of Cancellations, Delays Nationwide
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) -- Citing air traffic control problems and weather issues, Southwest Airlines has suffered three straight days of cancellations and delays, though no other major airlines have experienced the same level of problems.
"If it's not an emergency, I would not fly with Southwest right now even though I love Southwest," passenger Debbie Day said.
Back from a two-week cruise with her husband and another couple, Day was sitting in the Southwest terminal at LAX flanked by eight pieces of luggage.
"To be honest, I'm not real happy. I'm a little bit sad and I'm really worried because I'm out of my medication," Day said, and added that her flight to Dallas was cancelled for the second day in a row.
RELATED: Southwest Airlines Issues Travel Advisory Due To Weather, Traffic Control Issues
Though it's little comfort, she's not alone. More than 800 Southwest flights were cancelled Saturday and well over 1,000 Sunday across the country. The situation had appeared to improve somewhat by Monday morning at Los Angeles International Airport, where most Southwest flights were on schedule.
Southwest apologized for the inconvenience and in a statement, said in part:
"We've experienced weather challenges in our Florida airports at the beginning of the weekend, challenges that were compounded by unexpected air traffic control issues in the same region, triggering delays and prompting significant cancellations..."
However, no other major airlines struggled with as many delays and cancellations.
"My wife's a little mad I won't be home tonight, but what are you going to do?" said Southwest passenger Alvin Kitchenum.
Kitchenum was in town to watch his team, the Chargers, take on the Cleveland Browns Sunday at SoFi Stadium. His flight back to Vegas was cancelled, but Kitchenum said it wasn't all bad.
"They won though, that's the good sign," he said.
The Federal Aviation Administration said there were no air traffic staffing shortages since Friday, but did blame the weather and military training for delays and cancellations.
As for rumors of a so called sick-out among Southwest staff circulating on social media, the airline's pilot union denied any such thing.
On Monday, Southwest released a statement saying,
"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.
If Customers require assistance from Southwest, they can utilize one of the airline's self-service options for convenience or Contact Us via one of the methods listed on Southwest.com."
