For anyone looking to fly to a New Year’s festival in the next few days, they should be aware of the massive wave of cancellations from the popular airline Southwest that could cause some serious travel issues.
Over the course of 48 hours, Southwest canceled 5,400 flights across the United States: 2,900 on Monday (70% of its daily schedule) and 2,500 on Tuesday (60% of its daily schedule.)
Now the issues continue on Wednesday as the airline cancelled another 2,500 flights for over 90% of all flight cancellations that day. But the issues will persist as a statement from the CEO confirmed the airline will only fly about a third of its schedule throughout the week as it recovers from the fiasco.
The cancellations seem to be a combination of many factors including weather, seasonal sickness, and electronic system issues. The Christmas storms through Chicago and Denver hit Southwest hard as these are two of the company’s biggest hubs. Now many employees are sick with COVID, the flu, or the intense cold going around and their electronic tracking system is not able to track available crews due to IT mismanagement. As a result, the airline was unable to recover from previous flight issues, leading to these insane cancellations.
Those going to Proper NYE or OMFG! in San Diego will be especially affected as Southwest is the San Diego airport’s largest carrier and cancelled more than 80% of its flights in and out of the area. Attendees of Decadence Colorado are also at risk as 50% of the Southwest flights at Denver International Airport are cancelled through Thursday as well as a few other airlines due to an incoming storm.
Other airlines do seem to be better off although prices will surge and availability will be limited as the ripple effect runs through other airlines.
Check out this video below to hear more about the Southwest flight cancellations affecting New Year’s 2022 festival plans:
Featured image from Southwest
