Southwest Airlines canceled hundreds of flights over the weekend, blaming the woes on air traffic control issues and weather.
The airline canceled more than 1,000 flights, or 28% of its schedule, as of Sunday afternoon, according to flight tracker FlightAware. That was the highest rate by far of the major U.S. airlines. Next in line were Allegiant and Spirit, which had respectively canceled 5% and 4% of their flights on Sunday, according to the flight tracker. American Airlines canceled 2% of its flights.
The mass cancellation has affected operations at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, the airport said in a Sunday tweet. Airport spokeswoman Christine Crews said 47 Southwest flights had been canceled as of Sunday evening.
Southwest Airlines said in an emailed statement that it had experienced weather challenges in its Florida airports at the beginning of the weekend, which were compounded by unexpected air traffic control issues in the same region. Those issues triggered delays and prompted significant cancellations for the airlines beginning Friday evening.
“We’ve continued diligent work throughout the weekend to reset our operation with a focus on getting aircraft and crews repositioned to take care of our customers,” said Southwest Airlines. “With fewer frequencies between cities in our current schedule, recovering during operational challenges is more difficult and prolonged.”
Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak even weighed in, offering support for the airline’s staff on Twitter.
“Just flew to Reno! The Southwest team is taking a lot of abuse because of canceled and delayed flights that they don’t deserve,” he wrote. “Thank you for the great work you’re doing!”
The company said that it’s allowing customers to explore self-service rebooking options on Southwest.com, where they can get updates on the status of their travel.
