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Dec. 28 (UPI) — Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Southwest Airlines will be held accountable for the treatment of passengers and staff during its holiday season meltdown where the carrier planned to cancel the majority of its flights again on Wednesday.
Southwest Airlines has struggled to recover from a series of holiday storms and staffing shortages over the Christmas holidays that has left one of America’s most relied-upon airlines to cancel up to 70% of its flights over consecutive days.
That has created ripple effects throughout the industry as thousands of passengers either remain stranded in an effort to get home or having their vacation plans postponed or nixed altogether.
Buttigieg said on CNN that other airlines have not experienced the same troubles as Southwest, calling the airlines’ situation “unacceptable.”
“From what I can tell, Southwest is unable to locate even where their own crews are, let alone their own passengers, let alone baggage,” Buttigieg said. “The CEO [Bob Jordan] pledged to me that they will not only meet but they will exceed the customer service standards and commitments that they have made to us in the past. And that we’re in a position to enforce.”
According to the flight tracking website FlightAware, Southwest on Wednesday morning has already announced it was canceling 62% of its trips, accounting for 2,507 flights.
“I also talked with union leadership from the pilots and from the flight attendants,” Buttigieg said. “They made clear that they have been raising the alarm about these issues in their systems for some time.
“What’s really concerning here is while all the other parts of the aviation system have been moving towards recovery and getting better each day, it’s actually been moving the opposite direction with this airline.”
Compared to other U.S.-based airlines on Wednesday, according to FlightAware, Spirit Airlines canceled 4% of its flights and JetBlue 2% while American, Delta and United had no planned cancelations.
“We’re focused on safely getting all of the pieces back into position to end this rolling struggle,” Jordan said in a statement on Tuesday. “I have nothing but pride and respect for the efforts of the people of Southwest who are showing up in every way.
“The tools we use to recover from disruption serve us well, 99% of the time; but clearly, we need to double down on our already existing plans to upgrade systems for these extreme circumstances so that we never again face what’s happening right now.”
