Families hoping to catch a Southwest Airlines flight after days of delays, lost luggage, and missed family connections faced another wave of canceled flights on Wednesday, with another 2,500 removed from arrival and departure boards.
Exhausted travelers sought alternate modes of transportation, such as rental vehicles or railways, or some simply gave up.
According to the FlightAware tracking service, Southwest was responsible for more than 91% of all canceled flights in the United States early Wednesday. Southwest has been unable to recover from the devastating winter storms that ravaged broad swathes of the country over the weekend.
Southwest’s operating systems have been severely impacted, to the point where the federal government is now probing what happened at the Dallas carrier, which has also angered its own flight and ground staff.
With other major airlines canceling flights ranging from none to 2% this week, Southwest has canceled roughly 10,000 flights as of Wednesday and warned of thousands more on Thursday and Friday, according to FlightAware.
Southwest CEO Robert Jordan said in a video aired late Tuesday that the airline would operate on a reduced schedule for many days but aimed to be “back on track before next week.”
Jordan blamed the airline’s “highly complex” network on the winter storm. “For now, I want you to know that we are committed to that.”
Washington is now paying close attention to the airline
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who has previously chastised airlines, said his department will investigate the causes of Southwest’s extensive cancellations and whether the airline was honoring its legal commitments to stranded customers.
“Because what we’re seeing right now, from the system and the flights themselves to the inability to reach anybody on a customer service phone line, it is just completely unacceptable,” Buttigieg told CBS early Wednesday.
The Senate Commerce Committee also pledged a probe in Congress.