Even the Ministry of Transportation faces criticism of Biden… “No matter how much we apologize, it’s not enough”
Southwest Airlines, which has marred the US Christmas and New Year holidays due to unprecedented flight cancellations, announced on the 29th that it would all but normalize operations by the 30th (local time).
Southwest released a statement the same day, saying, “We know that no apology to our customers, employees and everyone affected by this outage will not be enough.”
Most airlines have been unable to avoid large-scale cancellations and delays from just before the Christmas holidays to the aftermath of the winter storm that hit nearly all of the United States last week, but Southwest is the only airline that massively canceled more than half of all multi-day flights.
The airline is still canceling more than 2,000 flights (up 60%) each day this week, after Christmas. According to flight information site FlightAware, Southwest has canceled more than 2,300 flights, or 58% of all flights, since 3 p.m.
However, the number of Southwest flights scheduled to depart on the 30th but canceled were confirmed to be 39, which was close to normal within a week.
Southwest, a pioneer low-cost carrier (LCC), operated many flights in the Midwest near winter storms and suffered major problems due to an outdated crewing system and different routes than other airlines, have US media reported. .
In response, the US Department of Transportation announced it would investigate Southwest’s cancellation and delay rate, saying it was “at an unacceptable level,” and President Joe Biden warned that “we will hold the airlines accountable.”
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg also criticized the situation as a “system failure” in an ABC interview the previous day, saying, “It’s been a while to say it was a weather-caused problem.”
Meanwhile, Southwest said it will compensate customers in various forms for the cancellation of nearly 16,000 flights since the 22nd.
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