FORT MYERS, Fla. — The U.S. Department of Transportation said it will look into flight cancellations by Southwest Airlines that have left travelers stranded at airports across the country amid an intense winter storm that has killed dozens of people.
Many airlines were forced to cancel flights due to the weather, but Southwest was by far the leader in canceled flights. About 4,000 domestic U.S. flights were canceled Monday, according to the tracking website FlightAware, and 2,900 of those were Southwest.
Other major airlines, including American, United, Delta, and JetBlue, suffered cancellations rates of between none and 2%. The cancellation rate at Southwest Airlines was 62%, according to FlightAware.
Southwest spokesman Jay McVay said at a press conference in Houston that cancellations snowballed as storm systems moved across the country, leaving flight crews and planes out of place
“So we’ve been chasing our tails, trying to catch up and get back to normal safely, which is our number one priority as quickly as we could,” he said. “And that’s exactly how we ended up where we are today.”
More than 2,800 more flights had already been canceled in the U.S. as of 7 a.m. Tuesday and problems are likely to continue at least into Wednesday.
At the RSW International Airport the Southwest Airlines ticket counter could be seen crowded with angry customers Tuesday morning.
“Its just miserable,” said Paul Leroy.
Leroy’s flight to Baltimore was canceld around 1:30 a.m. Tuesday. Just a few hours before it was scheduled to take off.
“I came out to see what they could do for me and virtually nothing,” he said.
He said Southwest Airlines offered to either return his money for the flight or reschedule his flight for Thursday.
About 50 flights were canceled Tuesday at RSW Airport and more than 40 of them were from Southwest Airlines.
