Southwest passengers may see relief on Friday as cancellations ebb

Southwest Airlines said it plans to operate close to a normal schedule beginning Friday, a sign that its long recovery from a punishing winter storm and breakdown of internal technology is coming to a close after more than 15,000 canceled flights.

The misery continued Thursday for many passengers, with the airline once again canceling more than half of its scheduled flights in an effort to hit the reset button on its struggling operation. But the end of a dayslong meltdown appeared to be in sight.

“We are encouraged by the progress we’ve made to realign Crew, their schedules, and our fleet,” the airline said in a statement. “With another holiday weekend full of important connections for our valued Customers and Employees, we are eager to return to a state of normalcy.”

On Thursday at Spokane International Airport, 2 of 5 arriving Southwest flights were listed as canceled and all four departing flights were listed as canceled. The airlines typically has eight arriving and departing flights a day.

While about 2,500 flights were canceled across the nation on Thursday, only a handful – fewer than 1% of the carrier’s flights – were scrubbed for Friday.

Airports with a heavy Southwest presence said they were starting to see chaotic scenes subside Thursday as they prepared for a smoother start to the holiday weekend.

The meltdown of the airline’s operations began when the storm hit Denver and elsewhere last week, then spiraled out of control, overwhelming computer systems that unions representing Southwest employees had warned were at risk of failing.

With its unusual point-to-point routing system, rather than a hub-and-spoke system, the airline has needed several days to get crews and planes back in position to resume a normal schedule.

Ryan Green, Southwest’s chief commercial officer, offered a fresh apology in a video message Wednesday night and said passengers can submit refund requests and ask to have their expenses covered using the airline’s website, avoiding busy phone lines.

“My personal apology is the first step of making things right,” Green said. “After many plans changed and experiences fell short of your expectations of us, we’re continuing to work to make this up to you.”

The inability of Southwest to recover from the storm, even as other airlines bounced back quickly, has drawn scrutiny from the Department of Transportation and congressional lawmakers, who have pledged to investigate what went wrong.

At the same time, it has spotlighted the limits of federal power to hold airlines accountable for disruptions and the rights of passengers to receive compensation.

As has been the case for much of the week, other major airlines have canceled only a handful of flights Thursday. The 2,359 flights scrubbed by Southwest on Thursday represents 96% of all domestic cancellations.

The problems began in Denver, where an executive warned Dec. 21 that Southwest was facing a worker shortage. Once the airline faltered, it found itself unable to recover.

Southwest executives and union leaders have pointed to aging computer systems that are supposed to help Southwest recover in the face of disruptions, but which couldn’t keep up with the scale of the problems.

Pilots and flight attendants have described waiting hours to reach the carrier’s scheduling office and have said managers essentially lost track of where employees were.

Phillip A. Washington, chief executive of Denver International Airport and the Biden administration’s nominee to lead the FAA, on Wednesday called on three airlines – including Southwest – to take part in an after-action review.

Washington said in a statement he wanted to understand their challenges in recovering from the storm.

Airports with large numbers of Southwest flights began to receive news Thursday that the airline was plotting a Friday recovery.

At Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas, spokesman Joe Rajchel said officials were relieved that operations would be up and running for the airport’s largest carrier.

“The day before New Year’s Eve is a big day in Las Vegas,” he said.

Ana State, spokeswoman for San Jose International Airport, said the resumption of flights was “good news” that airport, civic and business leaders had been waiting to hear. Southwest typically makes up about 60% of its flights.

Tens of thousands of passengers, meanwhile, have missed holiday plans, suffered long waits on hold and in airports and were forced to make expensive alternative travel arrangements.

Michael Leibig and his wife, Lauren Kerns, paid $536 for a round trip Southwest flight from Atlanta to Philadelphia to spend the holiday with family. The day after Christmas, they learned that the airline had canceled their Tuesday return trip.

With the automatic cat feeder running low, the couple plunked down $1,200 for two one-way tickets on a Delta Air Lines flight.

“We’ve never paid that much,” said Leibig, who said he typically spends about half that amount to fly to Philadelphia. “It was obviously very expensive.”