Southwest cancels 75% of flights at Fresno airport — and thousands across the country
The majority of Southwest Airlines flights to and from Fresno were canceled Tuesday as the carrier clipped thousands across the country.
Nine of the 12 arrivals and departures planned Tuesday — or 75% — were canceled, the Fresno Yosemite International Airport website showed.
The airline had tallied eight through Tuesday morning and cut a ninth flight before 1:30 p.m., the website shows.
Many of those were to or from Las Vegas, but also included departures to Denver, Phoenix and other destinations.
Between 7 a.m. Monday and 7 a.m. Tuesday, Southwest had canceled more than 2,500 of its flights nationwide, or about 63% of its planned takeoffs, according to real-time data from flight tracking website Flight Aware.
Bigger airports in other California cities saw many more flights canceled and some at higher percentage rates for the 24-hour period ending 7 a.m. Tuesday: Sacramento, 76%; San Francisco, 79%; and San Diego, 75%.
“As we continue the work to recover our operation, we have made the decision to continue operating a reduced schedule by flying roughly one third of our schedule for the next several days,” Southwest Airlines said in a Monday statement posted to its website.
The Christmas weekend is the busiest travel time of the year, and last week saw many northern and eastern states hit by extreme winter weather.
The U.S. Department of Transportation, in a statement posted to social media, said it was “concerned by Southwest’s unacceptable rate of cancellations and delays & reports of lack of prompt customer service.”
“The Department will examine whether cancellations were controllable and if Southwest is complying with its customer service plan,” the department tweeted Monday evening.
Southwest recorded by far the highest flight cancellation rate Monday. Next highest among U.S. domestic airlines was Spirit, with 10% of its flights canceled from 7 a.m. Monday to 7 a.m. Tuesday, Flight Aware numbers showed.
Southwest in a Monday news release said it was “fully staffed and prepared for the approaching holiday weekend” but that mass cancellations were brought on by the winter storm.
The Sacramento Bee contributed to this report.
This story was originally published December 27, 2022 at 9:28 AM.
