Airlines cancel thousands of flights due to the winter storm, with Southwest cancelling 70% of them

Instead of the weather, other travellers cited personnel concerns as the cause of their delays.

Airlines have cancelled thousands of flights as winter weather and staffing shortages continue to wreak havoc across the United States, turning what has been for many a Christmas nightmare into a nightmare.

Most major airlines have cancelled or delayed thousands of flights, with Southwest Airlines cancelling at least 2,600 flights on Monday owing to a purported system failure.

Additionally, 60% of the airline's flights for Tuesday have been cancelled.

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 cancelled.

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.

From Houston's William P. Hobby Airport, McVay said, "It's just that this one started out out west, swept east, and impacted almost every single one of our largest airports." That put us in a position where we struggled to recover, and we struggled to get our flight crews and aircraft where they needed to be.

The incident has "been disastrous," according to Capt. Casey Murray, head of the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association, in a statement earlier on Monday.

Southwest has failed miserably on every level. In terms of Southwest, Murray said, "We were dealt a really bad hand," adding that their "processes," "information technology," or "infrastructure" "just wasn't there to support the operation." "Our pilots, our front-line employees, have worked under enormous stress to try to get our passengers from A to B."

Murray continued, "Unfortunately, it's our consumers who are suffering the most."

On Monday, frustrated Southwest passengers vented on Twitter about the cancellations, delays, and protracted wait times for customer support representatives.

Southwest said in a web statement that "consecutive days of extreme winter weather across our network" were "behind us" and that "continued issues are harming our customers and workers to a substantial degree that is unacceptable." And our sincere regrets for this are only getting started.

Southwest Airlines stated that it is relocating its employees and aircraft, which were all in the wrong places, in order to "address the wide-scale disturbance."

In a statement released Monday night, the Department of Transportation expressed its "alarm" over Southwest's "unacceptable rate of cancellations and delays and reports of a lack of prompt customer support." The government will look into whether Southwest is adhering to its customer service plan and whether cancellations were preventable.

Three travellers were interviewed: one who spent the night at a Boston airport awaiting a new flight; one who was stuck in Chicago after his flight was cancelled; and one who had to drive with a stranger to go to his Disney Cruise in Tampa after experiencing flying problems.

Every traveller blamed the delays on staffing rather than the weather.

Laetitia Duler, a holiday traveller from Boston to San Francisco, said, "I wanted to fly home for Christmas." "Your flights have been cancelled," they said as soon as I got in line. "Like, goodbye."

Because of a crew shortage, Eric Jernigan's Delta flight from Jackson, Mississippi, to Tampa, Florida, for a Disney cruise, was cancelled, he said.

After getting detained at Jackson-Medgar Wiley Evers International Airport, he and five other people made the decision to travel to Florida.

When blizzard conditions arrived in the area, Buffalo, New York, imposed a travel ban.

Local authorities and New York Governor Kathy Hochul report that 29 people have perished in the state as a result of a significant lake-effect blizzard.

The Buffalo Niagara International Airport said on Monday that it will be closed until Wednesday as its staff works nonstop to reopen it.