"As a result, we had to ask our crew schedulers to do this manually, and it's extraordinarily difficult," he said. Southwest ended up with planes that were ready to take off with available crew, but the company's scheduling software wasn't able to match them quickly and accurately, Watterson added. "The process of matching up those crew members with the aircraft could not be handled by our technology," Watterson said. But the Federal Aviation Administration strictly regulates when flight crews can work, complicating Southwest's scheduling efforts. The extreme cold, ice and snow grounded planes and left some crew members stranded, so Southwest's crew schedulers worked furiously to put a new schedule together, matching available crew with aircraft that were ready to fly. On a call with employees Tuesday, Southwest Chief Operating Officer Andrew Watterson explained that the company's outdated scheduling software quickly became the main culprit of the cancellations once the storm cleared, according to a transcript of the call that was obtained by CNN from an aviation source. "They're just not manned with enough manpower in order to give the scheduling changes to flight attendants, and that's created a ripple effect that is creating chaos throughout the nation." "The phone system the company uses is just not working," Lyn Montgomery, President of TWU Local 556, told CNN's Pamela Brown. Stranded customers have been unable to get through to Southwest's customer service lines to rebook flights or find lost baggage.Įmployees also said they have not been able to communicate with the airline, the president of the union that represents Southwest's flight attendants told CNN Monday. The storm hit Chicago and Denver hard, where Southwest has two of its biggest hubs - Chicago Midway airport and Denver International airport. Southwest had a combination of bad luck and bad planning. Southwest Airlines baggage service office staff assist stranded passengers with their luggage at the Southwest terminal at the Los Angeles International Airport, on Tuesday, Dec. The Biden administration is investigating. The company's CEO said this has been the biggest disruption he's seen in his career. Southwest warned that it would continue canceling flights until it could get its operations back on track. The next highest: Spirit Airlines, with 83. Southwest canceled more than 2,500 flights. By Monday, air travel was more or less back to normal - unless you booked your holiday travel with Southwest Airlines.Ībout 87% of Tuesday's US flight cancellations are Southwest, according to flight tracking website FlightAware. (CNN) - A punishing winter storm that dumped multiple feet of snow across much of America led to widespread flight cancellations over the Christmas holiday.
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