Southwest Airlines Cancels Hundreds of Flights

After thousands of U.S. flights were canceled or delayed over the holidays in 2022, most holiday travelers this year are off to a cheerier start this Christmas. But a few trouble spots were emerging on Christmas Day. From a report: Roughly 135 flights to, from or within the U.S. had been been cancelled as of 11:30 a.m. Eastern Time, while just over 1,100 were delayed, according to tracking service FlightAware. Airlines had canceled only 1.2% of U.S. flights so far this year as of Dec. 22, the lowest in five years. Nearly 3 million passengers were expected to pass through domestic airports during the busy holiday period, up 16% from 2022. Not everyone got off so lucky.

Some passengers at Chicago's Midway International Airport this Christmas Eve were left stranded on Christmas Eve, according to CBS News Chicago, with the U.S. carrier most disrupted during last year's holiday period -- Southwest Airlines -- again experiencing problems. Southwest attributed the delays to foggy weather in Chicago, but passengers also told CBS2 that a shortage of workers was a factor. Those snafus also affected passengers at Denver International Airport, with Southwest canceling 293 flights on Sunday, while nearly 1,300 trips were delayed, FlightAware data shows.

Second verse

[93 Escort Wagon]

Same as first.

Merry Christmas

[backslashdot]

Your flight is canceled.

Re:

[ChunderDownunder]

Sounds like a Reese Witherspoon /Vince Vaughn holiday movie.

Re:

[ls671]

No worries! They hired therapy llamas to keep people calm, entertained and happy!
https://entertainment.slashdot... [slashdot.org]

To Be Expected

[NoWayNoShapeNoForm]

When you fly to any airport in the Midwest that is north of Kansas City in the winter you should EXPECT WEATHER-RELATED FLIGHT DELAYS.

Re: To Be Expected

[Midnight Thunder]

Also travelling so close to the 25th, it takes one incident to have you stand Christmas Day at the airport.

I appreciate not everyone has enough holiday time to be able to leave earlier.

If high speed trains were a thing in North America, then it would help offload some of the people to a transport type that is less susceptible to weather induced congestion issues and congestion in general.

Re: To Be Expected

[NoWayNoShapeNoForm]

Also travelling so close to the 25th, it takes one incident to have you stand Christmas Day at the airport.

I appreciate not everyone has enough holiday time to be able to leave earlier.

If high speed trains were a thing in North America, then it would help offload some of the people to a transport type that is less susceptible to weather induced congestion issues and congestion in general.

I have nothing against the HSR concept ... except for how some localities in 'Murica plan to implement it ... and that's before we get to the fact that building straight track (ideal for HSR) will plow through many people's homes so curved track (not ideal for HSR speeds, and speed is the point of HSR, right?) is planned in many places, like the portion between Lancaster-Palmdale & Anaheim. Imagine the crazy curves (or tunnels, and the enviros will go crazy at that) required to extend from Anaheim to San Diego.

HSR in 'Murica is never going to be HS if it has to stop in every major town and-or "county seat" along the line ... just to get that branch of HSR approved in that County locality. Just look at California and study the years of political wrangling it took to get their HSR plan approved in just the Central Valley region; good old fashioned American "you scratch my back and I will scratch yours" politics at it's best.

I think the Japanese have a well thought out HSR system with 3 different speed classes: (basically like this) 'express' between MAJOR cities like Tokyo & Osaka with VERY FEW stops; 'not quite express' (more stops than 'express' but only at major rail connecting hubs); and 'not really express' (makes quite a few stops between Tokyo & Osaka, for example). Perhaps the Japanese have been more successful with HSR because their population believes in "the greater good for all" cultural style rather than the American cultural style of "WHAT ABOUT ME?"

Which Japanese Shinkansen "speed class" do you think is slowest? You would be right if you said 'not really express'. It can be at least an hour or more SLOWER than the 'express' Shinkansen between Tokyo & Osaka according to a frequent Youtube rail & ship traveller who lives in Japan. And why slower? It has to make all of those stops AND yield track right-of-way (by sitting at a station stop longer than typical) to the "faster" ('express' & 'not quite express') Shinkansen trains. Tokyo to Osaka is about 250 miles or so, depending on how you measure it.

I don't know very much about HSR over in Europe, but I believe Germany has differentiated "speed classes" with higher speed trains making far fewer stops (only at selected major cities) than their version of "local service". And I believe the French TGV HSR makes very few stops (if any?) between Paris and the French Riviera.

Re:

[CG-sqrt(-1)]

If high speed trains were a thing in North America, then it would help offload some of the people to a transport type that is less susceptible to weather induced congestion issues and congestion in general.

Part of the issue in the USA is that major cities are farther apart than in Europe, and Americans seem to be less tolerant of travel time than Europeans.

The overland distance between New York City and Chicago is about 800 miles. High-speed rail typically averages 160 mph start-to-stop (sometimes better!), which works out to 5 hours terminal to terminal.

A sample flight time from New York - LaGuardia to Chicago - Midway is 2.5 hours gate to gate and a spot price of $110. Too many Americans, in my opinion, a

Re:

[Midnight Thunder]

Not every route will benefit from the high speed rail, but there are some that will. The first projects will be those linking relatively nearby high population centres. Some already targeted, or finished:

- Miami to Orlando (complete, but could benefit from speed upgrades)
- DC to NY to Boston (existing, but too many low speed segments)
- LA to Las Vegas (planned)
- LA to SF (going over budget, partly because of land rights issues)

There are surely others, but those are the ones I am aware about.

Fine

[manu0601]

They just had a 140M USD fine for last year's disruptions, but they keep selling tickets while they lack workers? Perhaps the fine is not big enough.

Re:

[thrasher thetic]

This one seems almost entirely weather-related, not 'we overbooked our capacity by tens of thousands of passengers'. A fine won't fix the weather.

Re:

[manu0601]

Southwest is alone making the headlines. Did other companies enjoyed a different weather?

Re:

[gardyloo]

Yeah! He'd surely make the planes run on time! *cough*

Yet more evidence of crapitalism's inefficiency

[blue trane]

Amirite?

Re:

[gardyloo]

You do know that Sunday and Monday are different days, right?

Leadership problem

[skogs]

But they have such great leadership?!

https://www.barrons.com/articl... [barrons.com]