Holiday Hell: How Southwest Airlines' ‘full-blown meltdown’ created travel chaos in US

Travelling the day after Christmas?

Chances are you aren’t having a good time – no matter where you are.

This, after US airlines cancelled 3,900 flights with Southwest Airlines – one of the world’s biggest low-cost carriers – accounting for 2,900 of these.

This, as America continues to reel under a brutal winter storm some have dubbed the ‘blizzard of the century’ which has left at least 50 dead across the country.

Founded by Herbert Kelleher and Rollin King on 15 March, 1967, Southwest has been making consistent profits for the past four decades – in an industry known for its brutal competitive environment.

Its pioneering business model of offering no-frills service with just one class on a single type of plane (the Boeing 737) served as the inspiration for IndiGo, which launched in 2006, as per Economic Times.

Let’s take a closer look at the row:

What happened?

As per flight tracking website FlightAware, more than 3,900 flights in and out of the US had been called off, while another 8,200 were delayed.

Southwest Airlines, meanwhile, had cancelled around 70 per cent of its flights – 300 of those in a half hour on Monday afternoon alone.

The airports in Denver, Las Vegas, Chicago Midway, and Dallas Love Field, where Southwest is headquartered, witnessed most cancellations, Business Insider reported.

As per NPR, Delta airlines, which was in second place behind Southwest, cancelled just 265 flights.

American Airlines cancelled just 12 flights, but accounted for nearly a quarter of all  delays (792), as per Business Insider.

Kyle Potter, executive editor of Thrifty Traveler, told NPR the airline was having a “full-blown meltdown.”

“This is really as bad as it gets for an airline,” Potter said. “We’ve seen this again and again over the course of the last year or so, when airlines really just struggle especially after a storm, but there’s pretty clear skies across the country.”

What’s the impact?

Airports across the US are witnessing chaos with thousands of travellers and crew members stranded.

Social media is rife with complaints of long wait times to speak with representatives, issues with lost luggage and in some cases unable to get through to customer service.

A traveller told CNN her family was on hold with Southwest for 10 hours.

CNN reported that Southwest representatives at Denver International Airport told passengers they would be unable to rebook flights until Friday and that new bookings would remain close till 3 January.

Lyn Montgomery, the president of Southwest flight attendants’ union, in an interview with CNN called the airlines’ treatment of workers and customers despicable.

“The way Southwest Airlines has treated its flight crews can only be termed ‘despicable. …Believe me, we know about stepping up and putting in long work hours when we are called to do so; we are flight attendants. But at this point, the many years of failure by management, despite many unions’ demands to modernize, has left flight attendants fatigued, stranded, hungry and cold – on Christmas!”

“The company’s failures are happening year-round, but are particularly egregious on Christmas. “Our customers struggled with it just as our thousands of flight attendants did.”

Montgomery in an interview with the Dallas Morning News blamed Southwest’s “archaic, outdated systems” for the chaos.

What is Southwest saying?

Southwest is publicly blaming the extreme weather conditions.

Speaking to NPR, airline representative Chris Perry said the ‘lingering effects’ of the storm were to blame. Perry said the airline hopes to “stabilise and improve its operation” in better weather conditions.

The airline claimed it was “fully staffed and prepared” ahead of the holiday weekend, but said 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.”

But CEO Bob Jordan seemed to strike a different note in private.

CNN quoted Jordan as telling employees in a message on Monday that the airline has “a lot of issues in the operation right now.”

“Part of what we’re suffering is a lack of tools. We’ve talked an awful lot about modernising the operation, and the need to do that,” the outlet quoted Jordan as saying by an aviation source.

What happens next?

More pain, according to Jordan.

“We had a tough day today. In all likelihood we’ll have another tough day tomorrow as we work our way out of this,” Jordan told the Wall Street Journal. “This is the largest scale event that I’ve ever seen.”

Meanwhile, authorities have taken note.

The Los Angeles Times quoted the Department of Transport as saying it was “concerned by Southwest’s unacceptable rate of cancellations and delays,” and reports of a “lack of prompt customer service.”

“The department will examine whether cancellations were controllable and if Southwest is complying with its customer service plan,” the agency tweeted.

With inputs from agencies

Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook ,  Twitter  and  Instagram .