"That helps the airline 'compartmentalize' its operation when bad weather hits." "At an airline like American or United, for example, a plane may operate on a fairly narrow 'track,' traveling from its base hub to a variety of cities," Harteveldt said.
The storm also curtailed air travel, including at Southwest Airlines, which saw major airports in Denver and Chicago hammered by harsh conditions.īut the particularly severe disruption at Southwest Airlines is due in large part to the company's approach to flight scheduling, which departs from the typical hub-and-spoke model that most airlines rely on, Henry Harteveldt, a travel industry analyst at Atmosphere Research Group, told ABC News via email. MORE: Southwest CEO apologizes to passengers, staff after flight cancellation chaos While the snowstorm grounded flights in and out of key airports in Southwest's network, the historic scale of cancellations stems from the company's uniquely complex flight coordination model and its antiquated internal scheduling systems, according to flight experts, Southwest Airlines officials and union leaders. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., the chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, said the problems at Southwest Airlines "go beyond weather." In an interview with ABC News' Byron Pitts, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg on Tuesday described the wave of flight cancellations at Southwest Airlines as a "shocking and unacceptable level of disruption." Meanwhile Sen.
Each figure accounted for less than 1% of the respective company's total flights. The holiday meltdown at Southwest Airlines, however, has far eclipsed its competitors.īy Wednesday afternoon, the company had canceled more than 2,500 flights planned for the day, which amounted to 62% of the day's total, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware.īy contrast, as of Wednesday afternoon, United Airlines had canceled just 11 flights scheduled for the day while American Airlines had canceled 23, FlightAware said. with snow, slowing air travel during a peak season and causing tens of thousands of flight cancellations. A massive storm has blanketed much of the U.S.
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