Southwest flight upheaval a ’system failure,’ U.S. says
1 year, 11 months ago

Southwest flight upheaval a ’system failure,’ U.S. says

Live Mint  

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Wednesday ratcheted up pressure on Southwest Airlines, saying thousands more cancelled flights indicated a system failure at the low-cost carrier. but also things like hotels, like ground transportation, like meals because this is the airlines' responsibility," he said, adding that he had spoken to the company's leadership. U.S. airlines had cancelled thousands of flights as a massive winter storm swept over much of the country before and during the Christmas holiday weekend, but Southwest's woes have deepened while other airlines have largely recovered. U.S. Representative Rick Larsen, the top Democrat on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said in a tweet that the company was treating flight cancellations as "controllable" beginning Dec. 24, which triggers reimbursement for incidental expenses and refunds for full fares.

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History of this topic

US is investigating Delta's flight cancellations and faltering response to global tech outage
5 months ago

US is investigating Delta's flight cancellations and faltering response to global tech outage

Hindustan Times  

U.S. regulators are investigating why Delta Air Lines failed to recover as quickly as other airlines from a global technology breakdown and whether Delta's treatment of passengers stranded by canceled and delayed flights violated federal rules. US is investigating Delta's flight cancellations and faltering response to global tech outage Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Tuesday announced the investigation into Delta's …

US is investigating Delta's flight cancellations and faltering response to global tech outage
5 months ago

US is investigating Delta's flight cancellations and faltering response to global tech outage

The Independent  

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Please try again later {{ …

Southwest Airlines says a key measure of pricing power will be weaker than expected in 2Q
5 months, 4 weeks ago

Southwest Airlines says a key measure of pricing power will be weaker than expected in 2Q

Associated Press  

DALLAS — Southwest Airlines, already under pressure from a hedge fund for disappointing financial results, said Wednesday that a key revenue ratio will be weaker than expected because of changes in how consumers book travel. However, Southwest said, revenue for each seat flown one mile – a closely watched measure of pricing power – will fall by 4% to 4.5% …

US travel chaos: Thousands stranded due to Southwest Airlines system outage
6 months, 3 weeks ago

US travel chaos: Thousands stranded due to Southwest Airlines system outage

Hindustan Times  

ht newSouthwest Airlines experienced significant travel disruptions across the United States on Tuesday due to a computer system outage, marking the second major incident of this kind within four months. The glitch, which was attributed to a firewall failure, forced the Federal Aviation Administration to ground all Southwest flights temporarily, affecting thousands of travelers. Thousands of passengers across US were …

Southwest Airlines reaches $140 million settlement over holiday flight-canceling meltdown last year
1 year ago

Southwest Airlines reaches $140 million settlement over holiday flight-canceling meltdown last year

Associated Press  

DALLAS — Southwest Airlines will pay a $35 million fine as part of a $140 million settlement to resolve a federal investigation into a debacle in December 2022 when the airline canceled thousands of flights and stranded more than 2 million travelers over the holidays. Southwest said it was “grateful to have reached a consumer-friendly settlement” that gives the airline …

Southwest Airlines reaches $140-million settlement for December 2022 flight-canceling meltdown
1 year ago

Southwest Airlines reaches $140-million settlement for December 2022 flight-canceling meltdown

LA Times  

Canceled Southwest Airlines flights appear on the monitors at Los Angeles International Airport on Dec. 29, 2022. Southwest Airlines will pay a $35-million fine as part of a $140-million agreement to settle a federal investigation into a debacle in December 2022 when the airline canceled thousands of flights and stranded more than 2 million travelers over the holidays. Southwest said …

The US has decided that Southwest’s customer service failed during flight cancellations last winter
1 year, 1 month ago

The US has decided that Southwest’s customer service failed during flight cancellations last winter

Associated Press  

DALLAS — Federal regulators have told Southwest Airlines that the carrier failed to provide enough help to travelers who were stranded during massive cancellations last December, and the airline could be subject to a fine. Southwest said in a regulatory filing Monday that it can’t estimate the cost of a fine and damages from lawsuits stemming from nearly 17,000 canceled …

Southwest passengers face delays after nationwide grounding
1 year, 8 months ago

Southwest passengers face delays after nationwide grounding

Associated Press  

DALLAS — Southwest Airlines planes were briefly grounded nationwide Tuesday for what the airline called an intermittent technology issue, leading to more than 2,200 delayed flights just four months after the carrier suffered a much bigger meltdown over the Christmas travel rush. “Southwest has resumed operations after temporarily pausing flight activity this morning to work through data connection issues resulting …

Over 1,000 US Flights Cancelled Due to Winter Storm, Southwest Airlines Worst Hit
1 year, 10 months ago

Over 1,000 US Flights Cancelled Due to Winter Storm, Southwest Airlines Worst Hit

News 18  

More than 1,000 Monday flights into or out of the United States have been cancelled due to a severe winter storm, with about half of those coming from Southwest Airlines Co. A total of 1,019 flights were cancelled as of 6:00 pm ET, according to flight-tracking service FlightAware. Low-cost carrier Southwest earlier this month faced U.S. government backlash for cancelling …

US investigating December flight cancellations at Southwest
1 year, 10 months ago

US investigating December flight cancellations at Southwest

Associated Press  

DALLAS — The U.S. Transportation Department said Wednesday it is investigating whether Southwest Airlines deceived customers by knowingly scheduling more flights in late December than it realistically could handle. “DOT is in the initial phase of a rigorous and comprehensive investigation into Southwest Airlines’ holiday debacle that stranded millions,” the department said in a statement. Southwest said its holiday schedule …

‘It was horrible’: Stranded Southwest passengers still waiting to recoup costs from airline meltdown
1 year, 11 months ago

‘It was horrible’: Stranded Southwest passengers still waiting to recoup costs from airline meltdown

LA Times  

Only weeks after a Southwest Airlines meltdown led to thousands of canceled flights and stranded passengers, the nation’s air travel system was briefly interrupted Wednesday due to an outage in the computer system used by the Federal Aviation Administration to give pilots vital information before they take off. “I am trying to be patient and give them a chance to …

Can Southwest Airlines recover from a holiday meltdown of its own making?
1 year, 11 months ago

Can Southwest Airlines recover from a holiday meltdown of its own making?

The Independent  

Sign up to Simon Calder’s free travel email for expert advice and money-saving discounts Get Simon Calder’s Travel email Get Simon Calder’s Travel email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. But Southwest Airlines experienced a network-wide collapse that left passengers, pilots and planes even in sunny and warm locations unable …

Southwest’s strong 2022 rebound soured by holiday debacle
1 year, 11 months ago

Southwest’s strong 2022 rebound soured by holiday debacle

Associated Press  

DALLAS — Southwest Airlines is anticipating a money-losing fourth quarter after a winter storm and technology meltdown led to nearly 17,000 canceled flights and stranded hundreds of thousands of holiday travelers. The airline said that expenses increased due to reimbursements to customers for out-of-pocket costs — the company has promised to cover “reasonable” bills for hotel rooms, meals and alternate …

Southwest starts on reputation repair after cancellations
1 year, 11 months ago

Southwest starts on reputation repair after cancellations

Associated Press  

DALLAS — With its flights running on a roughly normal schedule, Southwest Airlines is now turning its attention to repairing its damaged reputation after it canceled 15,000 flights around Christmas and left holiday travelers stranded. Southwest hopes that refunds, reimbursements and loyalty points will persuade people not to switch to other airlines, known in the industry as “booking away.” “Book-away …

Southwest apologizes, gives customers frequent-flyer points
1 year, 11 months ago

Southwest apologizes, gives customers frequent-flyer points

Associated Press  

DALLAS — Southwest Airlines is trying to make travelers who were caught in its surge of canceled flights over the holidays feel a bit better about the airline by giving them 25,000 frequent-flyer points. He added the airline is acting “with great urgency” to process refunds, return lost bags and handle requests for reimbursement of costs incurred by stranded travelers. …

Can Southwest Airlines buy back its customers’ love?
1 year, 11 months ago

Can Southwest Airlines buy back its customers’ love?

Live Mint  

The Southwest Airlines poster in a San Diego International Airport jetway wasn’t created to herald the airline’s return to normal over the weekend. Despite a 90-minute weather delay, the mood aboard Southwest Flight 867 from San Francisco to Las Vegas Friday night was celebratory, empty seats nonexistent. Replacing balky crew-scheduling technology, which Southwest blames for its severe lag in rebounding …

At Southwest Airlines, a day of calm after a week of chaos
1 year, 11 months ago

At Southwest Airlines, a day of calm after a week of chaos

Associated Press  

DALLAS — Southwest Airlines returned to a relatively normal flight schedule Friday, as the focus shifts to making things right with what could be well more than a million passengers who missed family connections or flights home during the holidays, and many of whom are still missing luggage. “I’m still reeling from the experience,” said Theresa Kraus, arriving home Friday …

Southwest says ‘normal’ services to resume on Friday as DOT sends warning
1 year, 11 months ago

Southwest says ‘normal’ services to resume on Friday as DOT sends warning

CNN  

CNN — Southwest Airlines says it’s set up to resume normal schedules on Friday after a tumultuous eight days that left hundreds of thousands of passengers delayed or stranded and prompted its executives to make apologies to the riding public and government officials. “I’m looking to make sure they actually do that, and if they don’t, we are in a …

Why Southwest is still melting down
1 year, 11 months ago

Why Southwest is still melting down

CNN  

New York CNN — It’s Thursday. Southwest said that prior to the storm last week, staff levels at the Denver airport became so low that it enacted “operational emergency” staffing procedures. Southwest’s “point-to-point” model involves planes flying consecutive routes and picking up crews at those locations. “That is a tedious, long process.” Watterson noted that manual scheduling left Southwest building …

How Southwest failed the holidays: Four charts explaining the cancellations
1 year, 11 months ago

How Southwest failed the holidays: Four charts explaining the cancellations

CNN  

CNN — A blast of severe winter weather last week caused thousands of Southwest Airlines flight cancellations and spiraled into a complete meltdown of its flight system. Since Dec. 22, the beleaguered airline has canceled more than half of its typical flight schedule, and by late Wednesday about 87% of all canceled flights in the US were from Southwest alone, …

Southwest Airlines flight cancellations continue to snowball
1 year, 11 months ago

Southwest Airlines flight cancellations continue to snowball

Associated Press  

DALLAS — Travelers who counted on Southwest Airlines to get them home suffered another wave of canceled flights Wednesday, and pressure grew on the federal government to help customers get reimbursed for unexpected expenses they incurred because of the airline’s meltdown. “I’m starting to feel homeless.” By early afternoon on the East Coast, about 90% of all canceled flights Wednesday …

Buttigieg Vows 'Extraordinary Effort' To Make Southwest Compensate Customers
1 year, 11 months ago

Buttigieg Vows 'Extraordinary Effort' To Make Southwest Compensate Customers

Huff Post  

LOADING ERROR LOADING U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg promised Wednesday that his office is putting intense pressure on Southwest Airlines to compensate customers affected by the company’s widespread flight cancellations. “This is going to take an extraordinary level of effort by Southwest, and we will mount an extraordinary effort to make sure that they’re meeting their obligations,” Buttigieg pledged on …

Southwest Airlines flight cancellations continue to snowball
1 year, 11 months ago

Southwest Airlines flight cancellations continue to snowball

Associated Press  

DALLAS — Families hoping to catch a Southwest Airlines flight after days of cancellations, missing luggage and missed family connections suffered through another wave of scrubbed flights, with another 2,500 pulled from arrival and departure boards Wednesday. In a video that Southwest posted late Tuesday, CEO Robert Jordan said Southwest would operate a reduced schedule for several days but hoped …

Southwest Airlines cancels more flights, draws federal investigation
1 year, 11 months ago

Southwest Airlines cancels more flights, draws federal investigation

Firstpost  

Southwest Airlines scrubbed thousands of flights again Tuesday in the aftermath of the massive winter storm that wrecked Christmas travel plans across the US, and the federal government said it would investigate why the company lagged so far behind other carriers. Dallas: Southwest Airlines scrubbed thousands of flights again Tuesday in the aftermath of the massive winter storm that wrecked …

Column: Southwest’s meltdown was born in America’s cheapskate corporate culture
1 year, 11 months ago

Column: Southwest’s meltdown was born in America’s cheapskate corporate culture

LA Times  

Southwest passenger Amanda Gevorgyan looks for her luggage among hundreds of bags from Southwest Airlines flight cancellations at LAX. That trend implies that as the country’s other air carriers have begun to work out their own traffic snarls resulting from the massive “bomb cyclone” that struck the U.S. starting on the day before Christmas, Southwest remains mired in disaster. “Our …

‘System failure’: US blames Southwest Airlines for meltdown
1 year, 11 months ago

‘System failure’: US blames Southwest Airlines for meltdown

Al Jazeera  

US Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigeig says mass flight cancellations are not merely a ‘weather-driven issue’. The administration of US President Joe Biden has called the meltdown that led to the cancellation of thousands of flights at Southwest Airlines a “system failure”, blaming the company itself for the crisis. “So what this indicates is a system failure, and they need …

Holiday Hell: How Southwest Airlines' ‘full-blown meltdown’ created travel chaos in US
1 year, 11 months ago

Holiday Hell: How Southwest Airlines' ‘full-blown meltdown’ created travel chaos in US

Firstpost  

Southwest Airlines, one of the world’s biggest low-cost carriers and the inspiration for IndiGo, cancelled around 2,900 flights on Monday. This, after US airlines cancelled 3,900 flights with Southwest Airlines – one of the world’s biggest low-cost carriers – accounting for 2,900 of these. “Our customers struggled with it just as our thousands of flight attendants did.” Montgomery in an …

3,900 Flights Cancelled in US Amid Severe Winter, Passengers Stranded as Southwest Airlines Call off Most Flights
1 year, 11 months ago

3,900 Flights Cancelled in US Amid Severe Winter, Passengers Stranded as Southwest Airlines Call off Most Flights

News 18  

More than 3,900 flights in the United States have been cancelled on Monday and more than 8,000 flights had been delayed amid severe winter weather. Southwest Airlines blamed the widespread disruption on recent “extreme winter weather,” saying snow and cold temperatures last week forced changes to flight schedules “at a volume and magnitude” still having repercussions Monday. The US airlines …

Stranded Southwest fliers face days of waiting as anger, scrutiny over meltdown grow
1 year, 11 months ago

Stranded Southwest fliers face days of waiting as anger, scrutiny over meltdown grow

LA Times  

Travelers stranded by the meltdown at Southwest Airlines face days of waiting as the airline struggles to rebuild systems battered by holiday storms and faces growing anger and scrutiny from Congress and federal regulators about how the debacle happened. In a video posted to Twitter shortly after 5 p.m., Jordan apologized and said the airline is doing everything it can …

US probes ‘unacceptable’ Southwest Airlines storm cancellations
1 year, 11 months ago

US probes ‘unacceptable’ Southwest Airlines storm cancellations

Al Jazeera  

The United States Department of Transportation has said that it plans to examine mass flight cancellations and delays by Southwest Airlines in recent days, amid a devastating storm that has disrupted travel plans for millions of Americans during the holiday season. The government agency said it would look to determine if the flight cancellations by Southwest — which in particular …

Southwest limits canceled flights after 3 tumultuous days
3 years, 2 months ago

Southwest limits canceled flights after 3 tumultuous days

Associated Press  

DALLAS — Southwest Airlines flights appeared to be running closer to normal on Tuesday after the airline canceled nearly 2,400 flights over the previous three days. Southwest maintains that bad weather and air traffic control issues in Florida on Friday triggered cascading failures in which planes and pilots were trapped out of position for their next flight. “We were significantly …

More Southwest Airlines flight disruptions follow a weekend of cancellations
3 years, 2 months ago

More Southwest Airlines flight disruptions follow a weekend of cancellations

NPR  

More Southwest Airlines flight disruptions follow a weekend of cancellations Enlarge this image toggle caption Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images Southwest Airlines travelers are facing another day of disruptions. The Southwest Airlines Pilots Association said on Sunday that "there are no work slowdowns or sickouts either related to the recent mandatory vaccine mandate or otherwise." …

Southwest canceled more than 2,000 weekend flights and the disruption continues
3 years, 2 months ago

Southwest canceled more than 2,000 weekend flights and the disruption continues

CNN  

New York CNN Business — The long weekend got a bit longer for Southwest customers after the airline canceled more than 2,000 flights Friday through Sunday. “Flight delays and cancellations occurred for a few hours Friday afternoon due to widespread severe weather, military training and limited staffing in one area of the Jacksonville Air Route Traffic Control Center,” the FAA …

American Airlines cutting flights as summer season starts
3 years, 6 months ago

American Airlines cutting flights as summer season starts

Associated Press  

DALLAS — American Airlines will cut hundreds of flights over the next three weeks to avoid overloading its operation as demand for summer air travel rises faster than once expected. Jantz said the cuts are “building in additional resilience and certainty to our operation.” She said American is making the most cuts on routes where it has multiple flights to …

Southwest still struggling with flight delays, cancellations
3 years, 6 months ago

Southwest still struggling with flight delays, cancellations

Associated Press  

DALLAS — Passengers on Southwest Airlines had to deal with canceled flights and delays for a third day on Wednesday, as the airline tried to recover from technology problems that started earlier this week. By late afternoon Central time, Southwest had canceled nearly 400 flights and more than 1,000 were delayed, according to tracking service FlightAware. A Southwest spokesman said …

Southwest Airlines Grapples With Another Outage, Halting Flights
3 years, 6 months ago

Southwest Airlines Grapples With Another Outage, Halting Flights

NPR  

Southwest Airlines Grapples With Another Outage, Halting Flights Enlarge this image toggle caption Scott Olson/Getty Images Scott Olson/Getty Images Less than 24 hours after a data problem disrupted Southwest Airlines flights across the U.S., the airline was once again hit by outages, leading the Federal Aviation Administration to order a temporary halt to new Southwest departures. Sponsor Message Southwest was …

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