Southwest Airlines cancels thousands of flights, stranding Phoenix Sky Harbor travelers

PHOENIX - Travelers at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport have been left stranded and without luggage, after Southwest Airlines canceled thousands of flights across the country during the busy holiday season.

The delays come amid a winter storm that has killed dozens of people.

Southwest officials say the issues also stem from the airline having problems "connecting flight crews to their schedules," confirming ongoing staffing issues.

Travelers at Sky Harbor could be stuck in Arizona through the end of the week.

"Canceled today, and…no flights are leaving for four days," said one flyer at Sky Harbor. 

Many airlines were forced to cancel flights due to the weather, but Southwest was by far the leader in canceled flights. About 4,000 domestic U.S. flights were canceled Monday, according to the tracking website FlightAware, and 2,900 of those were Southwest’s.

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Other major airlines, including American, United, Delta and JetBlue, suffered cancelations rates of between none and 2%. The cancelation rate at Southwest Airlines was 62%, according to FlightAware.

Southwest spokesman Jay McVay said at a press conference in Houston that cancelations snowballed as storm systems moved across the country, leaving flight crews and planes out of place.

"So we’ve been chasing our tails, trying to catch up and get back to normal safely, which is our number one priority as quickly as we could," he said. "And that’s exactly how we ended up where we are today."

RELATED: Southwest Airlines CEO releases video statement following cancellation of thousands of flights

More than 2,800 more flights had already been canceled in the U.S. as of 7 a.m. Tuesday and problems are likely to continue at least into Wednesday.

Passengers stood in long lines trying to rebook their flights. The Department of Transportation said on Twitter that it was "concerned by Southwest’s unacceptable rate of cancelations and delays & reports of lack of prompt customer service." The tweet said the department would look into whether Southwest could have done anything about the cancelations and whether the airline was complying with its customer service plan.

Southwest CEO Bob Jordan told The Wall Street Journal in an interview that the airline would operate just over a third of its usual schedule to allow crews to get back to where they needed to be.

"We had a tough day today. In all likelihood we’ll have another tough day tomorrow as we work our way out of this," he said Monday evening. "This is the largest scale event that I’ve ever seen."

Southwest releases statement

"We anticipate additional changes with an already reduced level of flights as we approach the coming New Year holiday travel period.

Additionally, with consecutive days of extreme winter weather across our network behind us, continuing challenges are impacting our Customers and Employees in a significant way that is unacceptable. And our heartfelt apologies for this are just beginning.

We’re working with Safety at the forefront to urgently address wide-scale disruption by rebalancing the airline and repositioning Crews and our fleet ultimately to best serve all who plan to travel with us.

We were fully staffed and prepared for the approaching holiday weekend when the severe weather swept across the continent, where Southwest is the largest carrier in 23 of the top 25 travel markets in the U.S. This forced daily changes to our flight schedule at a volume and magnitude that still has the tools our teams use to recover the airline operating at capacity.

This safety-first work is intentional, ongoing, and necessary to return to normal reliability, one that minimizes last-minute inconveniences. We anticipate additional changes with an already reduced level of flights as we approach the coming New Year holiday travel period. And we’re working to reach to Customers whose travel plans will change with specific information and their available options.

Our Employees and Crews scheduled to work this holiday season are showing up in every single way. We are beyond grateful for that. Our shared goal is to take care of every single Customer with the Hospitality and Heart for which we’re known.
On the other side of this, we’ll work to make things right for those we’ve let down, including our Employees.

With no concern higher than ultimate Safety, the People of Southwest share a goal to take care of each and every Customer. We recognize falling short and sincerely apologize."

Pilots, flight attendants blame outdated technology: ‘Preventable’

The president of the union representing Southwest pilots blamed the lack of crews to fly planes on scheduling software written in the 1990s and on management that he said failed to fix things after previous meltdowns, including a major disruption in October 2021.

"There is a lot of frustration because this is so preventable," said the union official, Capt. Casey Murray. "The airline cannot connect crews to airplanes. I’m concerned about this weekend. I’m concerned about a month from now."

TWU Local 556, a union of more than 18,000 Southwest flight attendants, said in a statement that the apparent systemwide meltdown stems from "operational failures" and a lack of modernized technology:

"TWU Local 556 has for years demanded that Southwest Airlines seek technological solutions to match its rapidly expanding operation. The lack of technology has left the airline relying on manual solutions and personal phone calls, leaving flight attendants on hold with Southwest Airlines for up to 17 hours at a time simply to be released to go home after their trip, or while attempting to secure a hotel room or know where their next trip will be. 

While reroutes and rescheduling are understood to be a part of the job in the airline industry, the massive scale of the failure over the past few days points to a shirking of responsibility over many years for investing in and implementing technology that could help solve for many of the issues that plague flight attendants and passengers alike."

Winter Storm Elliott

On Southwest Airlines' website, officials say Winter Storm Elliott has impacted travel, and that a system-wide waiver is in place through Jan. 2, 2023.

Problems at Southwest Airlines appeared to snowball after the worst of the storm passed. It canceled more than 70% of its flights Monday, more than 60% on Tuesday, and warned that it would operate just over a third of its usual schedule in the days ahead to allow crews to get back to where they needed to be.

American, United, Delta and JetBlue, suffered cancelations rates of between none and 2% by Tuesday.

The size and severity of the storm created havoc for airlines. Airports were overwhelmed by intense snowfall and drifts. Airlines canceled as many as 20% of their flights Saturday and Sunday and Buffalo Niagara International Airport, close to the epicenter of the storm, remains closed Tuesday.

The flights that have been either canceled or delayed at Sky Harbor were headed to a number of cities across the U.S., including Los Angeles, Maui, Reno, San Diego, San Francisco, and St. Louis.

"Customers holding any Southwest reservation from Sunday, December 25 through Monday, January 2, may rebook in the original class of service or travel standby (within 14 days of their original date of travel between the original city-pairs and in accordance with our accommodation procedures) without paying any additional charge," read a portion of the website.

A system-wide waiver is in place through Jan. 2, officials said.

As the delays and cancelations mount for Southwest Airlines, union officials are speaking out.

"From the flight attendant viewpoint, it's the fact that Southwest Airlines has not invested enough in its technological systems and its technological infrastructure to be able to handle when massive cancelations are needed and required when there is inclement weather," said Lyn Montgomery with the Southwest Airlines Flight Attendants Union.

Affected travelers speak out

As flight delays and cancelations mount for Southwest Airlines, those affected are talking about their ordeal.

"I had to buy this shirt in St. Louis just so I could have something clean," said traveler Winter Sellers. "I have been living in the same clothes, it’s been awful."

Sellers finally arrived into Phoenix, but not because of Southwest. She gave up after five days of travel and multiple flight cancelations. 

After her flight from New York to Phoenix turned into a layover in St. Louis, her dad drove 20 hours to pick her up.

"I had two weeks to spend time with my family and my friends, and I spent most of it alone in an airport, like I missed Christmas," Sellers said.

Because she's only 20 years old, renting a car or buying a hotel room wasn't an option.

"I don’t know anyone in St. Louis I’m not from there like I was stranded, I didn’t know what to do," she said.

Southwest has claimed that they'll be back to normal operations by Friday, but Sellers says she's doubtful.

"Probably not, I feel like they’re just too far in to far deep and can’t get out," she said.

Meanwhile, another flyer has decided to take it upon herself to help others.

"I’m just to help reunite people with their luggage if I can," said Michelle.

Michelle is going bag to bag texting the phone numbers attached to them to let them know they're at Sky Harbor.

 "One of them is still in Florida but she said at least one got there and one person is looking around another terminal," she said.

"My flight was canceled in Oakland. Waited for 5 hours, and they canceled it. Got a flight out of [San Francisco Airport] to Burbank, and drove to Phoenix and since I've been here for two days. Came here yesterday at 6:00 a.m., didn't leave the airport until 2:00 p.m. because they canceled my flight, and they were just giving delays," said Megan Faszer.

"Our flight was originally 8:40 [a.m.]," said Rebecca Romero. "By 11:40 [a.m.], they decided to cancel it."

Romero and her family will be staying with their family in the Phoenix area until they make the new flight Southwest Airlines assigned them. That flight is scheduled to take off on Dec. 30.

By Dec. 28, some travelers have managed to board their planes.

"Boarded about an hour ago, and we probably won’t be taking off here for another 30 minutes, I believe. I have an empty seat next to me, so it’s not overbooking," said one traveler.

Amid all the delays and cancelations, the amount of bags that made it to Sky Harbor without their owners is overwhelming, and there are long lines of people on the customer service line who are still looking for their bags.

For some, their lost suitcases could become a matter of life or death.

"We had checked their walker as well as their medicines and their CPAP," said Thomas Jones of Chandler. "My dad got up in the middle of the night to use the restroom, and he fell. Broke his hip. Had to have hip surgery on Christmas morning, and he’s now in a hospital over in Mesa."

RELATED: American Airlines says it will cap fares for some cities amid Southwest's high rate of cancelations

The flight delays also affected Arizonans who were trying to see out-of-state family members. After four days, Nick Russo said he is giving up on seeing his family in Chicago.

"Stayed in Dallas, rented a car, and we're going to be headed home to Phoenix [on Dec. 27]," said Russo. "We didn't get to see our family on Christmas. There were a lot of people that didn't get to see their family on Christmas. That's kind of unfortunate, but it's just kind of the whole circus that they ran you through."

Russo finally returned to Phoenix on Dec. 27.

"We had to go out and buy new clothes and a new car seat for our daughter to drive back. You have to spend money on a rental car. There were a lot of things that just were very inconvenient, and cost a lot of people time and money," said Russo.

Demand for rental cars soar amid travel woes

Amid mounting flight cancelations, some are turning to rental cars as a way to get home. There is a wait of at least an hour long in Phoenix for rental cars.

"They have no flights to get us back home until next week, so we either have to drive, or we're stranded and we both work, so here we go," said Kerrie Pauly.

Besides people trying to pick up a rental car, some are dropping off their rental car. Marcus O'Sullivan drove 11 hours from Dallas with two young children because their flights were canceled.

"We just wanted to be home," said O'Sullivan. "Pivoted, got a car and said ‘let’s just do a road trip, boys.' Had to make the best of it because it was just unfortunate."

 The car cost O'Sullivan $500, but he is hoping to be reimbursed by Southwest.

My flight is affected! What should I do?

Officials with Southwest Airlines say they are experiencing high call volumes, and travelers who do not have plans to travel in the next 72 hours should wait to call if they can, or use the airline's self-service digital tools.

Officials with Alaska Airlines are encouraging travelers to check the status of their flight before heading to the airport.

Also Read: Southwest Airlines flight cancellations, system crash

Live airline flight cancelation info

https://flightaware.com/live/cancelled/today/KPHX

Latest Weather

https://www.fox10phoenix.com/weather

Flight status at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport

https://www.skyharbor.com/Results/FlightSearch

Airlines serving Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport

https://www.skyharbor.com/Flights/Airlines

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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