Southwest Christmas Cancellations Year 2

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Southwest Christmas Cancellations Year 2

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electric boogaloo?

Why do people set themselves up for this. Everyone knows the weather terrible in the winter and they act surprised when flights get cancelled. I'm pretty sure Southwest was not the only company cancelling.

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This doesn’t look to be a SW problem surprisingly… at least at this point.

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Well since Chicago midway pretty exclusively is home to southwest (there's 3 delta flights a day), it's mostly a SW problem. Only 4 flights have landed this morning and nothing has taken off besides a Delta flight to Atlanta that left at 6am that came in yesterday.

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let’s wait and see how they handle the downstream implications of the weather

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This is what I'm waiting to see. I've seen a few downstream cancellations already including a Vegas to Sacramento flight, Tampa to buffalo, etc. Crews are likely out of place already and that's not including the diverted flights from this morning that couldn't make it in

FAA isn't cancelling flights, southwest is. FAA imposes limits on the number of flights that can arrive/depart from a given airport for certain conditions like snow, fog, ice, or thunderstorms. Southwest could delay all their flights by 6, 12, or 24 hours until the fog clears so they at least operate (similar to what delta does) but they are choosing to cancel likely to have a shot at getting crews used for other flights.

This is a legitimate weather event, but last year southwest used the 'weather' excuse to shite the bed operationally for 5-7 days leaving tons of customers stranded. Most of us on here are curious/concerned to see how they learned from last year and if any changes they made actually improve their recovery operations. Would you book a southwest Christmas flight?

I would not book any Christmas flight on the east coast.

Cancellations continuing today, 101 cancelled 219 delayed already at 445am per flightaware

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Why do people set themselves up for this. Everyone knows the weather terrible in the winter and they act surprised when flights get cancelled. I'm pretty sure Southwest was not the only company cancelling.

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Probably a way to gain from the chaos. Get some $$$ or free flight vouchers.

Southwest runs a point to point operation instead of the traditional hub and spoke model. While a American, Delta, and United plane will typically fly back and forth from the same hub, a Southwest plane may touch both coasts in a single day.

Other airlines can isolate weather incidents to the affected hubs and minimize disruptions elsewhere while Southwest can't.