As winter storms and staffing shortages continue to wreak havoc across the United States, airlines have canceled thousands of flights, turning this Christmas into the nightmare it has been for so many.
Thousands of flights have been canceled or delayed by the majority of major airlines, with Southwest Airlines canceling at least 70% of its flights on Monday (more than 2,600) as a result of an alleged system failure. Additionally, 60% of the airline’s flights for Tuesday have been canceled.
FlightAware data shows that on Christmas Day, 42% of Southwest’s flights were cancelled and 48% were delayed. Data as of Monday night revealed that more than 7,700 flights had been delayed and roughly 4,000 flights inside, into, or out of the United States had been canceled.
Southwest Airlines’ Jay McVay stated on Monday night that “the sheer enormity of the storm” had an impact on all of the country’s main airports.
“It’s just that we struggled to recover, and we struggled to get our flight crews and airplanes where they needed to be,” McVay said from Houston’s William P. Hobby Airport. “This one started West swept east and affected practically every single one of our main airports.”