PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Southwest Airlines and its passengers had a turbulent week, but the airline appeared to return to normal operations Friday following an avalanche of cancellations during one of the busiest travel times of the year.
So far, only two Southwest flights were canceled at Philadelphia International Airport on Friday, accounting for just 7% of the carrier’s total local operations. Over the last week, more than 80% of Southwest flights in and out of Philadelphia were canceled.
On Thursday, Southwest accounted for about 95% of all canceled flights in the United States.
Airline executives said that crew-scheduling technology — a major cause of the meltdown — has finally caught up with the backlog of pilots and flight attendants stranded in wrong locations. It took the airline, which flies point-to-point instead of through a hub, several days to get back into position.
Southwest has set up a section of its website for affected customers to request refunds, track their luggage and submit reimbursements for expenses such as meals and hotel stays. The airline’s chief commercial officer said that process will take several weeks.
The airline, in a statement, said it’s “eager to return to a state of normalcy,” but one lingering issue is reuniting the thousands of bags with their owners. Airline executives also admitted much work needs to be done to invest “in new solutions to manage wide-scale disruptions.”
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Nia, from Atlanta, was supposed to fly out of Philly on Monday. Her flight, of course, was canceled.
“I ended up having to rebook, and the earliest one that wasn’t crazy expensive was today,” she said. “I guess I understand the complications because of the weather. I wouldn’t say I’ll never fly it again, but I’ll definitely probably think before maybe trying it again.”
David, also of Atlanta, was leaving Philly Friday morning — almost a week later than he had planned. As a computer science college student, he said the airline would do well to upgrade its crew scheduling software.
“I think it’s very ridiculous. I’m a CS major, I go to school, and so it’s very funny seeing these kinds of meltdowns where it’s easily avoidable,” he said.
Southwest did not say how many people have been affected, but it is likely that far more than 1 million have had a flight canceled.
The airline has scrapped more than 13,000 flights since Dec. 22, according to tracking service FlightAware. Its planes have 143 to 175 seats and were likely nearly fully booked around the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.
Southwest leaders believe they will have enough empty seats over the next several days to accommodate any stranded passengers still wishing to fly on the airline — while conceding that many had either given up or found other transportation.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.