Southwest Airlines Hits Snags During Holiday Travels

This holiday season offered mainly clear skies to the millions of people jetting to their destinations, presenting a stark contrast to last year’s travel woes. However, Southwest Airlines fell behind the pack.

Christmas day wrapped up a largely seamless weekend of travel, the perfect gift for those on the move. As per FlightAware, a flight tracking website, a mere 157 flights within, to, or from the U.S. were canceled and 2,111 experienced delays as of late Monday afternoon. These figures presented an encouraging drop from the tumultuous travel disruptions of the previous year.

A key factor contributing to this improved travel scenario was the proactive approach adopted by U.S. airlines. In anticipation of the holiday rush, thousands of pilots, flight attendants, and other staff were hired. This strategic move was designed to prevent the recurrence of the previous year’s travel chaos, most notably the Southwest Airlines fiasco that left more than 2 million passengers stranded.

However, despite these preventative measures, Southwest Airlines faced intermittent turbulence over the weekend. While efforts were being made to rectify the situation by Monday, about 2% of the airline’s flights were canceled and 16% were delayed, equating to a total of 693 flights, as reported by FlightAware.

The weekend saw Southwest cancel 426 flights and delay 2,689 in total. The airline attributed these disruptions to dense fog in Chicago, which prevented planes from landing. Partial recovery was expected by Monday, with full recovery anticipated by Tuesday.

Meanwhile, AAA estimated that from Saturday through to New Year’s Day, 115.2 million people in the U.S. would travel at least 50 miles from home, both by air and car, a 2.2% increase from the previous year.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screened over 2.6 million people on Thursday alone. Although data for the weekend has yet to be released, the recent Thanksgiving period saw record-breaking numbers pass through U.S. airports. The influx even surpassed pre-COVID figures from 2019, with a one-day record of 2.9 million people being screened by the TSA on Sunday, Nov. 26.

The relatively temperate weather this holiday season compared to last year has significantly contributed to maintaining timely air travel schedules. However, conditions weren’t as favorable on the ground. Accumulating snow and ice across the Midwest and Great Plains resulted in hazardous driving conditions on Christmas Day. The National Weather Service reported blizzard conditions across most of Nebraska and South Dakota, with parts of eastern North and South Dakota experiencing ice storms.