Southwest Airlines had canceled more than 700 flights as of Monday afternoon, citing unusually severe winter weather.
Dallas-based Southwest Airlines topped the list of airlines most affected by the snow and cold that hit Texas and Louisiana, with more than 100,000 households affected by the storm from Michigan as far west as Oregon. There was a power outage.
Southwest Airlines had canceled about 18% of its schedule as of Monday night, according to reports. CNN Business.
The low-cost carrier told the outlet that the delays were pre-planned and that Southwest Airlines' historic 10-day meltdown resulted in nearly 17,000 flight cancellations and more than 2 million passenger losses. He said delays like those in 2022, when passengers were stranded, were not due to technical issues.
The disaster was devastating for Southwest Airlines, resulting in more than $1 billion in damages, including $600 million in passenger refunds and a $140 million civil penalty awarded by the Department of Transportation last month. This amount is 30 times greater than previous fines handed down by the Department of Transport. .
Southwest Airlines' schedule changes were made to “anticipate expected operating conditions across a wide range of our route maps, from winter precipitation, including blizzard conditions, to airfield and airspace constraints, and to limit exposure. everything from hazardous wind-chill environments that require rotating ground crews. A spokesperson told CNN in a statement.
The spokesperson added that cancellations and delays are expected to ease significantly on Tuesday “as the storm moves east and the cold begins to ease.”
Among the following cities, Chicago and Denver are scheduled to receive cooling advisories from the National Weather Service, and both are major hubs in the Southwest.
Dallas, where the airline is headquartered and has a 95% market share at Dallas Love Field Airport, is also expected to face dangerous winter weather this week, CNN reported, citing NWS.
Representatives for Southwest did not immediately respond to The Post's request for comment.
According to the agency, Ice “severely interferes with the function of the wings, control surfaces, and propellers, as well as the windshield, canopy, radio antenna, pilot tube, antistatic valves, carburetors, and air intakes. Turbine engines are particularly vulnerable.”
Additionally, when ice and snow accumulate on an airplane's fuselage, it adds “excess weight.” [that] The aircraft will lose altitude, according to the NWS.
Over Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, more than 140 million people in the U.S. from the Rocky Mountains to central Texas were under wind chill warnings, with temperatures expected to remain below freezing in Memphis, Tennessee, Dallas and Nashville. This is expected to be the lowest temperature on record. At least 72 consecutive hours as of Monday and Tuesday.
More than an inch of powder snow fell in New York City, marking the longest drought in history.
The five boroughs have not seen measurable snow since February 2022. A typical winter in the Big Apple averages nearly 30 inches of snowfall.
Southwest Airlines is not the only airline affected by conditions in the Arctic. United Airlines canceled 349 flights, or 13% of its schedule, on Monday, while Alaska Airlines canceled 166 flights, or 13%, according to FlightAware.
The airline canceled a total of more than 3,000 flights on Monday and postponed another 8,600, marking the first time since the Southwest Airlines meltdown from Dec. 23, 2022 to Jan. 1, 2023, according to FlightAware data. This was the highest number of cancellations in a single day.
There were approximately 3,000 cancellations and more than 16,500 delays over the weekend, Saturday and Sunday, respectively.
