US government to review ‘unacceptable’ cancellations by Southwest Airlines as travel chaos continues

Thousands of flights have been cancelled amid frigid weather across United States

The US government is to review the “unacceptable” level of cancellations by Southwest Airlines that has caused widespread travel chaos across the country.

The Dallas-based airline cancelled around 87 per cent of its Tuesday flights, more than 2,5000, and has warned that it will keep cancelling them until it can get its schedule back on track.

The airline has already cancelled 61 per cent of its flights for Wednesday and 14 per cent on Thursday, according to FlightAware.

Now the Biden administration says it is investigating the situation.

“Thousands of flights nationwide have been canceled around the holidays. Our administration is working to ensure airlines are held accountable,” Joe Biden tweeted on Tuesday.

The president also directed travellers to a Department of Transportation website which lays out airlines’ obligations to customers.

Southwest’s cancellation rate has been significantly higher than other airlines, with the next highest cancellation number on Tuesday being Spirit Airlines with 83.

(AP)

American, United, Delta and JetBlue, suffered cancellations rates of between none and 2 per cent by Tuesday, reported The Associated Press.

The Department of Transportation said in a statement on Monday: “USDOT is 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 airline’s delays came as a brutal winter storm wreaked havoc for travellers across the US, with dozens killed by the frigid weather and thousands still without power.

Southwest Airlines CEO Bob Jordan and COO Andrew Watterson explained the company’s failures in a message to staff on Monday night, which was obtained by CNN.

“We had people that were legal. We had aircraft that were available, but the process of matching up those crew members with the aircraft could not be handled by our technology,” said Mr Watterson. “In our desired state, we have a solver that would be able to do that very quickly and very accurately. Our system today cannot do that.”