South Florida airports see more delays, cancelations, frustrated flyers
MIAMI - Travel disruptions continued for passengers at South Florida's airports on Tuesday as flights were canceled nationwide due to the massive winter storm.
However, South Florida's airports were spared the worst when it came to delays and cancelations.
As of 11 a.m. Tuesday, 120 flights were delayed and 35 were canceled at Miami International Airport. At Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International there were 86 delayed flights and 88 cancelations.
By 3:45 p.m., Southwest had canceled 85 flights at the Fort Lauderdale airport and 32 at the Miami airport.
When Marty Stone arrived at the airport in Nashville, he found out his flight home to Fort Lauderdale was canceled.
"We were flying from Nashville, Tennessee down here to Fort Lauderdale," said Stone, who lives in Wilton Manors and had to come up with a back-up plan. "Recognizing that we weren't going to get any help at the Southwest counter we just went ahead an booked another flight to Atlanta on Delta thinking we would be able to have more options getting down here to Fort Lauderdale."
Stone arrived home at 11 p.m. but getting that Delta flight was not cheap.
"In order to get back last night it was over $3,000 for two tickets," Stone said. "But we made it here."
At the Fort Lauderdale airport, Brooke Luke and her family of four learned their flight to Tulsa was canceled.
"Southwest did give us a room for two nights, but I'm stuck here for five days so after the two days I'll have to figure out what to do," she said.
She tried booking another airline but it was too expensive.
"I did look into another airline (and) their tickets are $1,300," Luke said. "So there's no way I can drop another $5,000 to just get my family home."
It could be several days before Southwest can get it's airline schedule back on track.
In a written statement, the airline said: "We plan to operate a reduced schedule by flying roughly one-third of our schedule for the next several days."
Federal officials said the airline's operating chaos has drawn their review.
A spokesman for the Department of Transportation said in a written statement: "The rate of cancellations and delays on Southwest Airlines is unacceptable and dramatically higher than other U.S. carriers. This afternoon, Secretary Buttigieg spoke with the CEO of Southwest Airlines and conveyed that he expects the airline to live up to the commitments it has made to passengers, including providing meal vouchers, refunds, and hotel accommodations for those experiencing significant delays or cancelations that came about as a result of Southwest's decisions and actions. Southwest, as all airlines, is also obligated to provide a cash refund for passengers whose flights were canceled and decided not to travel. The Secretary also spoke with union leaders that represent Southwest's flight attendants and pilots. They conveyed to him that many flight attendants and pilots are stranded alongside passengers, sleeping on cots or having to book their own hotel rooms. He also conveyed to Southwest's CEO that he expects Southwest to do right by their pilots and flight attendants-and all their workers- in these situations. The Department will take action to hold Southwest accountable if it fails to fulfill its obligations and we will stay engaged with Southwest Airlines to make sure the airline does not allow a situation like this to happen again."
As of Tuesday evening, Southwest had cancelled 2,477 flights for Wednesday, including six at the Miami airport and 81 at the Fort Lauderdale airport.
Travel chaos across the country
Nationwide, more than 2,940 flights within, into or out of the US had been canceled, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware, while 2,422 flights had been delayed.
Tuesday's cancellations follow a full day of post-Christmas travel chaos, with 3,989 flights canceled on Monday -- 2,909 of those being Southwest flights.
Officials at Southwest said on Monday that consecutive days of extreme winter weather had forced it to fly around one third of the airline's usual schedule for several days. The airline said its "heartfelt apologies for this are just beginning".
Southwest warned that this week's cancellations and delays are expected to continue for several more days, with representatives saying the Dallas-based airline is planning to dial back its flight schedule in order to get operations on track.
Southwest was hit particularly hard because of a cascade of issues.
The storm slammed two of its biggest hubs -- Chicago and Denver -- at a time when Covid and other winter ailments were stretching staff rosters. Southwest's aggressive schedule and underinvestment have also been blamed.
The US Department of Transportation said that it was concerned about Southwest Airlines' "unacceptable" rate of cancellations over the holiday weekend and that it would examine whether the cancellations had been controllable.
Airport officials urge all flyers to check in to make sure their flight is still leaving before heading to the airport and those who have confirmed flights should leave early because there will be long lines for check-in and security screening.
The megablast of winter weather across the eastern two-thirds of the nation is forecast to slowly moderate this week.
