Southwest Airlines travelers faced a brutal capstone to the Christmas weekend, as the company canceled 70% of its flights Monday. Another 63% had been canceled by Tuesday. In a statement on its website, Southwest called its own performance 'unacceptable.'
While most other U.S. airlines also canceled some flights as a result of the unprecedented winter storm that swept across the U.S., none were as hard-hit as Southwest. On Tuesday, it confirmed it would be operating at just one-third capacity"for the next several days.", Southwest called its own performance"unacceptable."
Passengers wait in line to check in for their flights at Southwest Airlines service desks at LaGuardia Airport in New York on Tuesday.At a news conference in Houston, Southwest spokesman Jay McVay said cancellations snowballed as storm systems moved across the country, leaving flight crews and planes out of place.
Unlike many other U.S. air carriers, Southwest operates on what is known as a point-to-point flight route system, meaning a plane will fly consecutive routes, picking up different crews along the way. But if an airport goes offline because of weather, and a flight cannot reach its destination, the point-to-point system has a cascading cancellation effect, he said.
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