Southwest Airlines faces more vacation cancellations due to winter weather

Everyone remembers the Southwest Airline crisis last winter. It was a cascading effect in which bad weather forced the airline to cancel some flights, overwhelming its scheduling system and leading to mass cancellations.

It was a disaster of overwhelming proportions, as the airline stranded tens of thousands of passengers with literally no way to get home or wherever they were going at a time of year when hotels and rental cars are sold out. .

Related: American Airlines seat controversy sparks passenger uproar

That disaster cost Southwest Airlines (LUV) – Get a free report an unprecedented amount of $140 million from the United States Department of Transportation (DOT). More importantly, how the airline handled the cancellations and the days that followed cost it the faith of some of its passengers.

It also did not help the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association (SWAPA), the union that represents its pilots, and made it clear that the crisis was due to a lack of investment. The airline spent last year trying to assure passengers it would be ready for the winter season.

Southwest Airlines has a winter plan

Southwest COO Andrew Watterson spoke about the company's winter preparation during the Southwest conference. third quarter results call. She began by offering yet another apology.

“The disruption we had last winter was really hard on our customers and employees. It weighs heavily on all of us here at Southwest Airlines. We are very proud of our more than 50-year history,” he said.

He then explained how the airline has prepared to ensure the same thing doesn't happen this holiday season.

“The disruption was caused by an unprecedented storm that simultaneously hit several of our most critical stations, but there were many causes, not just one, that caused this,” he explained. “As a result, our action plan is divided into three categories: winter operations, cross-team collaboration and acceleration of operational investments, which were already on our roadmap, including technology.”

Watterson then mentioned something that has proven to be prophetic as we approach Christmas.

“One thing that really struck us with Elliott (the name of the 2022 winter storm) is that 25% of our team is based in Denver and Chicago,” he said.

The airline's problems were exacerbated by not being able to get crew from those locations to where they were needed.

“A key part of our action plan is to have more robust winter operations, so we can be confident that we will have our equipment on the network to operate in adverse weather conditions. That is why we invest in key stations based on calculated performance necessary to maintain our crew network,” he added.

This has already been tested this holiday season.

Southwest has the most cancellations

Dense fog on Christmas Eve in Chicago has caused Southwest to cancel several flights. This has caused a small ripple effect throughout the airline. As of 9:50 a.m. ET, the airline had canceled 63 flights, according to data from Flight reported.

Delta Air Lines showed just one U.S. flight canceled and Frontier had three, while the rest of the major U.S. domestic airlines show no cancellations as of Christmas Eve morning. Southwest has also reported 411 delays, far more than Delta with 69 and Frontier with 12.

Southwest explained what is happening in a statement sent to View from the wing.

We are working with our customers whose travel is affected by fog at Chicago Midway that began Saturday night and prevented incoming aircraft from landing, forcing some diversions and subsequent flight cancellations.

As visibility remains below required operating minimums throughout the night and is expected to continue until dawn, we have modified our planned start to today (Sunday) at Chicago Midway. We have all hands on deck as our employees are working quickly to serve our customers and accommodate them on alternative flights.

Chicago Midway is our fourth busiest airport operation, with more than 200 daily departures scheduled over the holiday weekend. Fog at Midway canceled approximately 2% of our total flights on Saturday (177 of 4,313) and less than 1% of our total flights early on Sunday (53 of 4,242).

Those cancellations have increased since that statement and the impact on on-time departures has been steadily growing. It's an unfortunate situation for affected travelers, but it hasn't spread like last year's crisis.

This is likely due, at least in part, to Southwest having more teams on the ground to assist in bad weather situations.

“We have added de-icing platforms, de-icing trucks, increased glycol storage and mixing stations, increased snow removal, heater cars and other equipment to operate safely and effectively in the winter weather. We have been conducting a school of summer deicing to make sure we have enough ramp officers trained and ready to deice,” Watterson explained.