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Another day, another headache for travelers hoping to reach their holiday destinations using Southwest Airlines.
The airline, which has been forced to delay and cancel thousands of flights since last week’s storm, had another bad day Wednesday. At Logan Airport, a total of 49 flights were canceled as of about 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. Southwest was responsible for 29 cancellations, more than half of the total amount, according to flight tracking service Flight Aware. On Tuesday, 30 of the 56 total cancellations at Logan were Southwest flights.
The worrying trend can be seen nationwide. Flight Aware tracked a total of 2,890 cancellations within, into, or out of the United States on Wednesday, as of about 7:30 p.m. Southwest was responsible for 2,509 of those cancellations. That amounts to about 61% of all their flights being canceled Wednesday, according to Flight Aware.
The problems are not expected to resolve anytime in the immediate future. By Wednesday evening, Southwest had preemptively canceled more than 2,300 flights scheduled for Thursday.
Last weekend’s storm began the crisis, as it disrupted service for every airline. Although severe weather has subsided in many parts of the country, including Boston, Southwest’s operational challenges continue.
Now, federal officials are getting involved. The Department of Transportation said on Tuesday that the rate of cancellations was “unacceptable,” and that the department will examine whether or not they were “controllable.”
Appearing on ABC’s “Good Morning America” Wednesday, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg called the situation a “meltdown.
