Southwest Airlines flight delays leaves passengers stranded at Pittsburgh International Airport
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — It's the least wonderful time of the year to be stranded in the airport.
Thousands of flights across the country have been canceled, and many of them were run by Southwest Airlines. KDKA-TV found travelers at Pittsburgh International Airport on Monday who were all packed up with no place to go.
"You can't find anything out on the website," Melissa Thompson said. "You have to wait six hours in line. It's just very frustrating."
Christmas might be in the rearview mirror, but for Thompson, who is supposed to be in Tampa, the airport is still very much in plain view.
"Nothing's posted, no one knows what's going on," said Thompson, who has been stuck in Pittsburgh for three days.
She's one of the thousands nationwide who are caught up in flight disruptions with Southwest Airlines. CBS News said the airline canceled two-thirds of its flights Monday, according to Flight Aware. More than 2,700 flights were canceled and 700 were delayed, all due to this weekend's winter storm.
"Trying to get back to Mississippi, flights been canceled, no notification until we were here," Eunice Williams said.
Passengers told KDKA-TV that they waited in line for hours at the airport to get answers from Southwest. Others who called were met with jammed phone lines.
The airline told CBS News that it apologizes to customers and blamed the weather, stating many airports with Southwest flights were impacted by the storm.
Southwest also said it was fully staffed ahead of the holiday and pointed to a lack of upgraded technology and tools to combat these issues when they arise.
On Monday night, the U.S. Department of Transportation blasted the airline on social media. It posted on Twitter saying, "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."
