Southwest Airlines Under Fire From DOT For Mass Holiday Cancellations

Severe winter weather took a heavy toll on holiday travel with over 17,000 flights canceled across the country since Wednesday. The issues hit Southwest Airlines the hardest after cancelling thousands of flights over the hectic holiday and attracting negative attention from the Biden administration.

The U.S. Department of Transportation tweeted Monday that it is "concerned" by Southwest's high number of flight cancellations. The DOT added that it will be examining the airline to determine if the cancellations "were controllable and if Southwest is complying with its customer service plan."

Southwest released a statement on Monday that said flight conditions would not improve for some time as the company addresses safety concerns.

"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," the statement reads.

According to the flight tracking website FlightAware, Southwest had already canceled 62% of its flights scheduled for Tuesday by 7 a.m.

Major national airlines such as American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and United Airlines had services disrupted and experienced cancellations and delays but were able to recover by Monday.

The total cost to airlines for holiday travel issues will be available next month, as transportation was disrupted from coast to coast due to severe cold, high winds, and blizzard-like conditions in much of the U.S.

On Monday, Southwest canceled 2,909 flights, 70% of flights scheduled for that day, and delayed 17%. By comparison, Delta Air Lines canceled 9% of its flights, and United Airlines canceled 5%, according to FlightAware. American Airlines canceled only 12 flights on Monday, less than 1%.

Southwest has been canceling fights proactively to ease system-wide stress. FlightAware data shows Southwest canceled almost one-third of all flights and delayed two-thirds of flights from Wednesday to Sunday.

CNBC reports Southwest CEO Bob Jordan said in a staff-wide message on Monday that recovery efforts will take several days.

"Part of what we're suffering is a lack of tools," Jordan said in a message obtained by CNBC. "We've talked an awful lot about modernizing the operation, and the need to do that. And Crew Scheduling is one of the places that we need to invest in. We need to be able to produce solutions faster."

The travel chaos affected airline staff, with some flight attendants having difficulty rescheduling and being stranded in airports due to the high rates of cancellations. Southwest has said it will provide extra pay to flight attendants who worked over the holidays.

Pilots and flight attendants are currently in union contract negotiations with the airline. "The way Southwest Airlines has treated its flight crews can only be termed 'despicable,'" said Lyn Montgomery, president of the Transport Workers Union of America Local 556, in a statement on Facebook.

"But at this point, the many years of failure by management, despite many unions' demands to modernize, has left flight attendants fatigued, stranded, hungry and cold – on Christmas! This impacts lives and threatens safety for all," Montgomery added.