Department of Transportation to Investigate ‘Unacceptable Rate’ of Southwest Airlines Cancellations

The U.S. Department of Transportation has announced that it will investigate the high rate of recent flight cancellations from Southwest Airlines amid the winter storms that gripped the nation over the holidays. 

“USDOT is concerned by Southwest’s unacceptable rate of cancellations and delays & reports of lack of prompt customer service,” the department tweeted on Monday. “The Department will examine whether cancellations were controllable and if Southwest is complying with its customer service plan.”

Per The Hill, Southwest Airlines canceled over 2,500 flights scheduled for Tuesday, stranding thousands of travelers across the country. In a statement released on Monday, the airline apologized for the “unacceptable” operational issues.

“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,” the statement read. “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. These operational conditions 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.” 

On Monday, Southwest canceled almost 3,000 flights, which is approximately 70 percent of its total flights, per Insider. The high number of cancellations was enough to make up for 50 percent of cancellations worldwide on December 26. The second closest number of cancellations from a U.S. airline was Delta, which canceled 265 flights.