Southwest Airlines apologized to customers Monday after canceling more than 2,700 flights nationwide — more than two-thirds of its schedule — as it tries to recover from an operational meltdown stretching back to an arctic storm on Thursday.
The Dallas-based carrier is cutting two-thirds of its flights in the coming days to try to get flight attendants and pilots back in position to reset its operations, chief operating officer Andrew Watterson wrote in a memo to employees Monday night. It’s a move that could help stabilize operations but will also reduce flying options for thousands of stranded passengers heading into another busy travel week.
Southwest canceled more than 8,000 flights since Thursday and is already axing flights for Tuesday in an attempt to get planes, flight attendants and pilots into the right locations to fly. About a third of Southwest’s flights in and out of Dallas Love Field were canceled Monday, nearly 300 in all, according to Flightaware.com.
