Southwest Airlines Cancellations Continue At Detroit Metro Airport

ROMULUS, MI — Hundreds of passengers who were booked on Southwest Airlines flights out of Detroit continued to experience frustrations and cancelations on Wednesday.

As of Wednesday morning, 14 Southwest flights were canceled at Detroit Metro Airport, accounting for nearly all cancelations at metro airport, according to FlightAware.com. Endeavor Air and Delta each had one flight canceled Wednesday.

More than half of the canceled flights at Detroit Metro Airport on Tuesday were also from Southwest, according to FlightAware.com.

Southwest officials have acknowledged the airline’s issues, which have been deemed “unacceptable” by federal officials, including President Joe Biden, who said he is calling on executives with the airline to do better in addressing the ongoing cancelations and delays.

The airline's ongoing cancelations have prompted scrutiny from federal officials, with Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg saying his department would hold the airline accountable.

"This is an unacceptable situation," Buttigieg told CNN. "Their system really has completely melted down, and our department will be holding them accountable … both to get them through this situation and to make sure this can’t happen again."

Southwest took to social media to address the flight cancelations Tuesday night.

"On the heels of wide-scale disruptions, we're working diligently to Safely recover our operation and accommodate displaced Customers and Crews," Southwest said. "We acknowledge this is unacceptable and sincerely apologize."

Southwest customers traveling through Jan. 2 can rebook in the original class of service or travel on standby without paying additional charges, according to the airline. Travelers can learn more here.

According to FlightAware.com. there have been nearly 2,800 flights within, into, or out of the United States that had been canceled Wednesday, a majority of which are operated by Southwest.
In a video statement Tuesday, Southwest CEO Bob Jordan said he was "truly sorry," adding that he had been in contact with Buttigieg.

"Here's why this giant puzzle is taking us several days to solve," Jordan said in his statement.

"Southwest is the largest carrier in the country, not only because of our value and our values but because we build our flight schedule around communities, not hubs ... Cities where large numbers of scheduled flights simultaneously froze as record bitter cold brought challenges for all airlines," he said. "Our network is highly complex and the operation of the airline counts on all the pieces, especially aircraft and crews remaining in motion to where they're planned to go."

Buttigieg said the airline was having issues with systems for managing its schedule and crew. He noted that the rest of the aviation industry was on its way to recovery following the worst of the storm with cancellations on other airlines being significantly lower.

Pointing to customer service commitments the department had secured from major airlines over the summer, Buttigieg said they would be using that as a tool for accountability. Jordan pledged that Southwest would not only meet but exceed the customer service standards, according to Buttigieg.