Southwest Airlines cancels more than 60% of flights after storms

Holiday travels this year have been severely disrupted by a massive storm that has affected more than half of the United States. Blizzard conditions, winds, and heavy snow have caused more than 3,800 flights to be canceled and more than 7,100 to be delayed, according to flight tracking website FlightAware. 

However, no other U.S. airline has canceled as many flights as Southwest. 

The Dallas-based airline has canceled more than 2,800 as of 7 p.m. on Monday— two-thirds of its scheduled flights. Almost 300 of those flights were canceled in the span of half an hour, reported CNN. 

While other airlines are returning to normal and stabilizing, Southwest Airlines’ flight cancelations are expected to continue onto Tuesday. Southwest canceled more than 65% of its scheduled flights on Monday, compared to 9% of Delta, 5% of United, and less than 1% for American. 

On Christmas Eve, Southwest Airlines CEO Bob Jordan said that the carrier was having “a lot of issued in the operation right now.”

“Part of what we're suffering is a lack of tools. We've talked an awful lot about modernizing the operation, and the need to do that,” Jordan told his employees. 

In addition to having their flights canceled, Southwest Customers had to deal with more than 10 hours of waiting times to get on the phone with a Southwest representative. Others had to wait in long lines at the airports to rebook their flights or had problems with lost baggage. 

"With consecutive days of extreme winter weather across our network behind us, continuing challenges are impacting our Customers and Employees in a significant way that is unacceptable," the airline said in a statement issued on Monday. 

"We're working with Safety at the forefront to urgently address wide-scale disruption. ... On the other side of this, we'll work to make things right for those we've let down, including our Employees."