An apology has been issued from Southwest Airlines after it cancelled thousands of flights over the last 4 days stranding passengers all across the US, and promises to do better today.
With the kind of mess Southwest's schedule has been in since Friday, there are no quick fixes. They have planes and crews out of position and it takes time to move all those pieces around the chess board.
But the company has a statement out to extend what it calls a "tremendous apology" to customers and employees.
Despite push back from critics, Southwest sticks to its explanation that the problems stem from weather woes and FAA issues with air traffic controllers.
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Even though Southwest employees have been complaining out pending vaccination mandates, the airline's statement says its operational challenges were not a result of Southwest Employee demonstrations.
The statement said, "Southwest Airlines extends a tremendous apology to our Customers and Employees for the flight cancellations and delays which occurred over the weekend and on Monday.
On Friday evening, the airline ended the day with numerous cancellations, primarily created by weather and other external constraints, which left aircraft and Crews out of pre-planned positions to operate our schedule on Saturday. Unfortunately, the out-of-place aircraft and continued strain on our Crew resources created additional cancelations across our point-to-point network that cascaded throughout the weekend and into Monday.
Southwest Teams have been working diligently to restore stability to the network, and we are experiencing less disruptions on Monday. We hope to restore our full schedule as soon as possible. As a note, the operational challenges were not a result of Southwest Employee demonstrations.
To every Customer that experienced a cancellation or delay, Southwest offers our sincerest regret regarding disrupted travel plans, and we look forward to a future opportunity to demonstrate our safe, reliable, friendly, and legendary Southwest Hospitality – something that Customers should always expect from Southwest Airlines.
If Customers require assistance from Southwest, they can utilize one of the airline’s self-service options for convenience or Contact Us via one of the methods listed on Southwest.com."
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