Southwest Airlines meltdown worsens as passengers stranded, airports upended

Thousands of Southwest Airlines’ travelers remained stranded at airports across the country Tuesday morning as the fallout from powerful winter storm that pounded much of the nation continued to ground hundreds of flights and disrupt passengers’ holiday travel plans.

Airlines canceled more than 2,800 flights Tuesday morning, the majority of them with Southwest Airlines, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware. At Los Angeles International Airport, 59 flights were canceled as of 6 a.m. Tuesday, and 27 were delayed.

Southwest CEO Bob Jordan told the Wall Street Journal the airline planned to operate at around one-third of regular capacity as it tries to regroup and get the schedule back on track.

“This is the largest scale event that I’ve ever seen,” he said.

The nightmarish travel scenario played out similarly on Monday, in which 4,000 flights were canceled. Southwest Airlines dropped nearly 70% of its scheduled flights nationwide — some 2,905 flights, far more than any other major U.S. carrier — as of Monday evening, according to FlightAware.

In California, hundreds of flights have been delayed or canceled through the end of the week.

A flight board shows canceled flights at the Southwest Airlines terminal on at LAX.

(Eugene Garcia/Associated Press)

Southwest Airlines blamed a catastrophic winter storm that swept across the northern half of the country over the holiday weekend for the cancellations, adding in a statement that “our heartfelt apologies for this are just beginning. … We recognize falling short and sincerely apologize.”

The paralyzing winter storm hit two of Southwest’s biggest hubs particularly hard, Chicago and Denver.

The U.S. Department of Transportation said Monday afternoon that it was “concerned by Southwest’s unacceptable rate of cancellations and delays,” as well as reports of a “lack of prompt customer service.”

“The Department will examine whether cancellations were controllable and if Southwest is complying with its customer service plan,” the agency said in a tweet.

This report will be updated.