![]() īy December 27, it became more clear that weather was not the sole cause of the mass cancellations rather, the airline's operational systems were struggling to recover from the disruptions. Parents reported that, on December 26, the airline stopped allowing unaccompanied minors to travel. On Monday, December 26, Southwest initiated a massive systemwide "reset", preemptively canceling thousands of flights during the following week, and halting ticket sales over concerns that travelers might buy tickets for flights that are subsequently canceled the airline said it would not allow flights to be rebooked until December 31 or later. Some customers could not contact the airline nor locate their luggage. On December 26, Southwest cancelled over 50% of its trips, blaming the winter storm. įrom Wednesday, December 21, until Sunday, December 25, 2022, Southwest cancelled around 25% of its flights. An airline spokesperson later denied that the Denver absences were the result of a "coordinated 'job action '" by ramp employees there. The state of operational emergency was only implemented at DEN, which was subjected to unusually frigid conditions. In a December 21 memo to airport ramp staff at Denver International Airport (DEN), Southwest's vice president for ground operations declared a "state of operational emergency" because of an "unusually high number of absences" there, implementing mandatory overtime and disallowing telemedicine appointments to excuse absences due to sickness. On Wednesday, December 21, the December 2022 North American winter storm caused severe winter weather across much of the western United States, prompting many airlines to cancel many flights. SWAPA blamed the failure on poor planning by management. The disruption to Southwest's system was worse than with other airlines at the time. Southwest cancelled more than 2,000 flights during the October 2021 event, blaming a combination of weather, insufficient staff, and air traffic control. In June and October 2021 Southwest suffered mass cancellation events. The airline could not efficiently locate and dispatch backup crews to operate delayed flights, SWAPA said. ![]() SWAPA said that the inflexibility of the airline's scheduling system was causing it to cancel many delayed flights because the crew's allowable duty hours were going to expire the airline would then lose track of the crews, forcing them to sleep on airport floors or find hotel rooms themselves. Earlier in 2022, SWAPA had campaigned Southwest not for increased pay and benefits-the traditional goals of an airline worker's union-but rather to pressure the airline to improve its crew scheduling technology. There had been complaints for a decade from members of the flight attendant's union that the technology behind Southwest's scheduling system was outdated. ![]() Michael Santoro, the vice president of the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association (SWAPA) indicated that Southwest has not invested in an updated software system. Meanwhile, their flight on time rate had slid to its lowest level in 10 years. The airline had also had higher cancellation rates than other major airlines. Starting from 0.8% in 2012, Southwest's flight cancellation rate had tripled to 2.4% by 2022. More than 15,000 flights were cancelled throughout the crisis. The disruption to operations was described by Seeking Alpha as the most costly and largest in the history of U.S. airline, and the third largest by domestic passenger volume, canceled more flights than usual, including more than 60% of its flights on two days. ![]() In December 2022, Southwest Airlines, a major U.S. Southwest Airlines aircraft parked at Santa Barbara Airport during the mass cancellation eventĢ022 Southwest Airlines flight cancellationsĬomputer failure and the December 2022 North American winter stormįormal investigations, flight cancellations and reimbursements ![]()
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