Southwest Airlines, in the crosshairs of the US government for flight cancellations

More of 10,000 canceled flights in a few days, chaos at the airports and various disruptions: Southwest Airlines was more affected than other US airlines by the wave of extreme cold and this Tuesday was the target of strong criticism

“It’s a complete debacle,” lamented Mike Sage, who had hoped to return to Florida on Monday after spending Christmas with his children in Connecticut.

Communicating with Southwest by phone, website, or app was impossible.

At the airport, after a two-hour line, he got a new reservation for Saturday.

But the attendant whispered: “If I were you, I wouldn’t count on this flight either. I’d book with another airline. We have crews stranded everywhere, pilots sleeping on airport floors,” Sage told AFP.

The other major US airlines also faced difficulties: Delta y Unitedfor example, canceled 1,835 and 1,257 flights respectively between Thursday and Monday according to the FlightAware site.

But with rising temperatures, operations resumed on Tuesday: American, United, Delta and JetBlue had cancellation rates of 0% to 2%.

Sage, who is missing “the biggest week of the year” for his Silver Springs Kayaking tour company, ended up buying a ticket for Friday with JetBlue after giving up tickets earlier but “at exorbitant prices.”

In the Southwest, the situation is not really improving.

After cancel almost 75% of its flights on Mondaythe company had cut another 63% on Tuesday morning and warned that only about a third of its planned routes would take off “in the coming days”.

Photos of long lines outside Southwest kiosks as well as unclaimed bags abound on social media.

Southwest’s problems weighed on the company’s stock and drew the attention of the federal government.

The Department of Transportation tweeted Monday that he is “concerned by Southwest’s unacceptable rate of cancellations and delays” and vowed to examine whether the airline is following through on its customer service plan.

The American President, Joe BidenFor his part, he assured in a tweet that his administration was working so that companies “assume their responsibilities.”

Union reveals internal flaws

Southwest management apologized for the situation and described the inconvenience to customers as “unacceptable.”

“We were fully staffed and prepared for the (…) Christmas weekend when bad weather swept across the continent,” he said in a statement.

According to the unions, the problems are due to the combination of two things: a more dispersed network of lines than other large companies, which usually revolve around a few airports, and an outdated employee assignment system.

In these conditions, crews are sometimes “in the wrong place, no plane“Southwest Drivers Union Vice President Mike Santoro told CNN.

The software “doesn’t know where we are, where the planes are. It’s frustrating for the pilots, the cabin crew, and obviously the passengers,” he added.

The exasperation is shared by the company’s flight attendants union, TWU Local 556.

“We know the demands of the holiday season. We know the winter storms. And believe me, we know how to pick up the pace and work long hours,” its president, Lyn Montgomery, said in a news release.

But “management has failed to resolve the situation for several yearsleaving the flight attendants tired, stranded, hungry and cold at Christmas!

Improving the IT infrastructure is one of the main demands of the company unions.

The company “is modernizing tools and procedures” to better serve customers and employees, management said during an investor presentation in early December.

Extreme cold has plagued the United States for several days, accompanied by heavy snowfall and strong winds. The so-called “snowstorm of the century” has already caused the death of more than fifty people.