Thousands of holidaymakers were unable to get closer to home on Tuesday, in the aftermath of a deadly winter storm that suspended flights and adjusted final holiday plans. The week continues to take place at air counters across the country.
Disruption is likely to continue throughout the week at airports, where flight cancellations leave weary travelers home sleeping on the floor and waiting in line for hours to be served. .
By 5 a.m. ET on Tuesday, more than 2,800 flights in the US had been canceled and nearly 600 more delayed. according to FlightAware, a flight tracking service. Most of the cancellations – nearly 2,500 of them – came from Southwest Airlines, which canceled more than 60% of flights for the day.
Tuesday’s chaos follows similar scenes on Monday, when more than 4,000 US flights – most also operated by Southwest – were canceled and more than 8,500 delayed, FlightAware reported. .
Southwest Airlines said in a statement on Monday that travel disruption is “unacceptable” and its network slowed down because Winter storms have devastated many parts of the country with heavy snow, ice and strong winds last week. “Our sincere apologies for this have only just begun,” the company said, adding that it was working to address the disruption by “rebalancing the airline and repositioning it.” taste” the crew.
By late Monday and into Tuesday morning, Southwest was in damage control mode, responding to angry and frustrated customers on Twitter. The The airline kept apologizing for flight cancellations and offer support via direct message, which doesn’t please everyone. US Department of Transportation said in a statement on Monday that it would look into Southwest, adding that it was concerned about the airline’s “unacceptable delay and cancellation rates” as well as reports of poor customer service.
According to David Vernon, aviation analyst at financial firm Sanford C. Bernstein, Southwest’s network is organized in what’s known as a point-to-point system. That type of system allows for more aircraft to be used during normal times but can cause cascaded negative effects when problems occur.
No single region or airport should bear the burden of cancellations. On Tuesday morning, more than 150 flights departing at Denver International Airport, or about 17% of outgoing traffic, were canceled and more than 110 flights, or about 38%, were canceled from the International Airport. Chicago Midway. More than 100 flights were also canceled at Harry Reid International in Las Vegas, and similar numbers were reported for Dallas Love Field in Texas and Nashville International in Tennessee.
The recovery has only just begun in areas like Buffalo, where at least 28 people died and roads remain impassable after the region’s worst winter storm in more than 50 years. The driving ban remains in place, where snow is expected to end early Tuesday after accumulating up to 49 inches thick. Governor Kathy Hochul said on Monday many streets were still uncultivated and vehicles were still stuck on the roads.
Most of the outages were restored after affecting more than 1 million customers at the height of the storm, but thousands were still without power in Maine and New York early Tuesday, according to the report. power outage.us.
