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Southwest Airlines has done something historic, has canceled thousands of flights in a short period of time, due to meteorological and operational causes, more than any other airline in the USA.
In winter season in the northern hemisphere and I feel high season of travel given the Christmas and New Year holidays it is common to see dozens of flights canceled, But this year, something has been seen that is rarely seen: a single airline canceling thousands of flights.
Southwest and its canceled flights
concretely, Southwest Airlines has been canceled since 22 from December to 28 december over 15,700 throughout its network of destinations, being one of the airlines with the most point-to-point flights within USA.
The information was shared by Flight Radar 24 based on their own platform records:
As we can see, the cancellations started, as for all airlines the 22 December when winter weather impacted much of northern USA with snow storms that forced the closure of airports, divert and cancel flights due to the impossibility of operating safely.
In this frame, all airlines were affected, but one of them is still suffering more than any other and this has an explanation.
Why has Southwest canceled so many flights?
The information that adds to what is generated by bad weather comes hand in hand with how the airline operates from point to point and not in one or several hubs such as United O Delta, and also to how operationally the airline manages its staff.
Reports indicate that the airline operates with a personnel management system that is several years old and that it does not follow in real time where its employees are. pilots and crew, which causes the system to think that X pilot has already arrived at an airport to take another plane, when the reality is that he is still stuck in another terminal with a canceled flight.
This failure in information by not having exact and real data, has caused the system to collapse when scheduling flights with crews that are not available, that added to the bad weather and lack of personnel on the ground that this also generates, lead the airline to literally have more planes on the ground than in the air.
The numbers of passengers affected have not been reported., but if we multiply the 15 thousand flights for an average of 150 passengers, we talk about more than 2 millions of passengers who have not been able to travel to meet their friends and family, an affectation that was only seen at the beginning of the pandemic.
What does the airline say?
The airline published a series of statements and a video of its CEO, indicating:
With back-to-back days of extreme winter weather across our network, ongoing challenges are impacting our Customers and Employees in a significant way that is unacceptable.
And our sincere apologies for this are just beginning..
We are working with safety at the forefront to urgently address large-scale disruptions by rebalancing the airline and repositioning crews and our fleet ultimately to better serve everyone who plans to travel with us..
We were fully staffed and prepared for the upcoming holiday weekend as severe weather swept across the continent., where Southwest is the largest airline in 23 of the 25 Major US Travel Markets. These operating conditions have forced daily changes of unprecedented volume and magnitude to our flight schedule, and the tools our teams use to recover the airline remain at capacity..
This safety first work is intentional, ongoing and necessary to return to normal reliability, one that minimizes last minute hassles. As we continue the work to recover our operation, we have made the decision to continue operating a reduced schedule by flying approximately one third of our schedule for the next few days. And we're working to reach out to Customers whose travel plans will change to provide specific information and available options., also available at southwest.com/traveldisruption.
Our employees and crews scheduled to work this holiday season are showing up in every way. We are more than grateful for that.. Our shared objective is to serve each Client with the Hospitality and Heart that characterize us..
On the other hand, we will work to make things right for those we have let down, including our Employees.
With no more concern than maximum security, the people of Southwest share the goal of caring for each and every customer. We acknowledge falling short and sincerely apologize..
This does not end here and the thousands of passengers affected will continue to add up day by day, even more so when storms are still a constant threat these days, affecting more passengers, even to users in Latin America and the Caribbean where the airline has a growing operation.
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