After days of chaos, canceled flights and stranded travelers, Southwest Airlines said it plans to resume normal operations “with minimal disruptions” Friday.
But it remains unclear how long it will take passengers who spent days in limbo to reach their destinations — and receive compensation for the week-long meltdown.
“With another holiday weekend full of important connections for our valued customers and employees, we are eager to return to a state of normalcy,” the airline said in a statement Thursday.
Southwest continued to operate at about one-third its normal operations Thursday, canceling 2,362 flights, about 60% of its services, according to the flight tracker FlightAware. As of 9:30 a.m. Thursday, 52 flights originating at Los Angeles International Airport were canceled, along with 54 incoming flights and dozens more listed as delayed.
But the Dallas-based carrier had fewer than 40 flights scheduled for cancellation on Friday, less than 1% of its total schedule for the day, according to FlightAware.
The airline has been beset by problems since last week, when a punishing winter storm pummeled much of the country, upsetting travel plans and causing widespread flight disruptions.
Though much of the industry more quickly recovered, Southwest remained in turmoil for days.
The company is the country’s largest low-cost carrier, with routes to various airports in California including Los Angeles, Oakland, Burbank, Sacramento, San Diego and San Jose.
Southwest’s massive disruptions affected thousands of fliers, leaving them stranded at dozens of airports around the country without their luggage or else digging into their pockets to find alternative travel options, prompting a surge in demand for rental cars. The chaos has also overwhelmed crews and staff, including pilots, flight attendants and gate agents.
“We know even our deepest apologies — to our customers, to our employees, and to all affected through this disruption — only go so far,” the company’s statement said Thursday. “We have much work ahead of us, including investing in new solutions to manage wide-scale disruptions.”
The airline set up a new webpage for customers to submit refund and reimbursement requests for meals, hotels and alternate transportation; as well as to connect with baggage.
Southwest has been in overdrive to get its planes back in flight, and mea culpa videos posted to Twitter have become almost like a salve for the company as it seeks to allay customers’ frustrations and maintain what’s left of its reputation. A day after the chief executive apologized to fliers, Ryan Green, the company’s chief commercial officer, pledged the company “would do everything we can, and work day and night to repair our relationship with you.”
“My personal apology is the first step of making things right after many plans changed and experiences fell short of your expectations of us,” he said.
The airline has canceled at least 13,000 flights — well over 50% of its services — since Dec. 22, according to FlightAware.
A devastating winter storm that blasted the country just before Christmas sent holiday plans tailspinning into chaos. And Southwest’s fiasco was the “perfect storm” of well-known issues, industry experts and union leaders for the company said. They cited the company’s outdated technology and vulnerable operations that are particularly susceptible to any disruptions, much less multiple coast-to-coast weather events.
Experts explained that the U.S. airline giant operates on a unique flight pattern — planes run from destination to destination instead of in and out of certain hubs — that leaves little room for error. It also has no partnerships with other airlines to assist with rebookings, it operates with few open seats or backup crews. Delays can quickly spiral.
Green pointed to a number of updates to the company’s websites for affected travelers, including allowing fliers traveling through Jan. 2 to change their itineraries online, forms to help travelers locate lost luggage and refund requests for cancellations or acquired expenses because of the disruptions.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg stepped up pressure on the company this week, telling“Good Morning America” on Wednesday that the massive cancellations “indicates a system failure” and the agency will be “watching closely” to ensure Southwest meets its customer service commitments. Southwest’s compensation for passengers should cover flights along with meals, lodging and ground transportation because “this is the airline’s responsibility,” he said.
Staff writer Grace Toohey contributed to this report.
