Southwest Airlines Cancels Nearly 1K Bay Area Flights

BAY AREA, CA — A bomb cyclone plunging wide swaths of the nation into blizzard-like conditions combined with the holiday season to create a perfect storm at the nation's airports Tuesday. In the Bay Area, Southwest Airlines canceled hundreds of flights after the worst of the storm had passed.

The cancelations were slated through Saturday, stymying vacation plans for countless families over the winter break. Nationwide, at least 4,000 flights were canceled Monday — more than 2,900 by Southwest Airlines alone, according to flight tracking website FlightAware. That is about 70 percent of the airline's total flights scheduled.

As of 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, for a three-day period from Monday through Wednesday, some 975 Southwest flights have been canceled at the three major San Francisco Bay Area airports, according to FlightAware.

There were 39 canceled Southwest flights into or out of SFO on Monday, 38 canceled Southwest flights to or from the airport Tuesday, and 38 canceled Southwest flights into or out of SFO on Wednesday.

At San Jose International Airport, 149 Southwest flights were canceled Monday, 155 were canceled Tuesday and 147 Southwest flights are canceled Wednesday into or out of SJC.

At Oakland International Airport, 159 Southwest flights were canceled Monday, 128 were canceled Tuesday and 122 were canceled for Wednesday into or out of OAK.

By 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, there were 3,050 canceled flights nationwide, 2,599 of which were Southwest Airlines.

The airline issued an apology to stranded holiday travelers, stating that its operational challenges stem from last week's historic winter storm.

"With consecutive days of extreme winter weather across our network behind us, continuing challenges are impacting our customers and employees in a significant way that is unacceptable," Southwest stated in a news release. "We are working with safety at the forefront to urgently address wide-scale disruption ... And our heartfelt apologies for this are just beginning."

Southwest spokesman Jay McVay said at a press conference in Houston that cancellations snowballed as storm systems moved across the country, leaving flight crews and planes out of place.

• READ MORE: Southwest Cancellations Continue Into Tuesday After Christmas Holiday

“So we’ve been chasing our tails, trying to catch up and get back to normal safely, which is our number one priority as quickly as we could,” he said. "And that’s exactly how we ended up where we are today.”

The travel disaster has triggered a response from the federal government with the U.S. Department of Transportation vowing to investigate Southwest's cancellations.

"USDOT is concerned by Southwest's unacceptable rate of cancellations and delays and reports of lack of prompt customer service," the department tweeted. "The department will examine whether cancellations were controllable and if Southwest is complying with its customer service plan."

Problems at Southwest Airlines appeared to snowball after the worst of the storm passed. It canceled more than 70 percent of its flights Monday, more than 60 percent on Tuesday, and warned that it would operate just over a third of its usual schedule in the days ahead to allow crews to get back to where they needed to be.

American, United, Delta and JetBlue, suffered cancellations rates of between none and 2 percent by Tuesday.

The disparity prompted the U.S. Department of Transportation to call the rate of cancellations “disproportionate and unacceptable."

Southwest Airlines said it was fully staffed late last week and prepared for the approaching Christmas weekend when severe weather swept across the continent.

"We're working with safety at the forefront to urgently address wide-scale disruption," airline officials stated, noting that Southwest plans to operate with a reduced schedule, flying roughly one-third of its originally scheduled flights for the next several days.

"On the other side of this, we'll work to make things right for those we've let down," the airline stated.

Impacted travelers can find more information a southwest.com/traveldisruption.

City News Service, the Associated Press and Patch staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report.