- Video reveals a Southwest pilot presenting stranded travellers espresso at the Baltimore airport on Tuesday.
- The airline is struggling with mass cancellations and delays just after serious climate in the previous week.
- “We are appreciative of all of our Workers that are operating difficult to assist one particular another,” the airline reported.
In a more heartwarming moment to arrive out of the Southwest mass cancellation fiasco, a person of the airline’s pilots was witnessed handing out totally free espresso to stranded passengers at Baltimore/Washington Worldwide Thurgood Marshall Airport.
The video clip was posted to Twitter on Tuesday early morning by WUSA 9 reporter Eric Flack., and displays an unnamed pilot carrying all around a tray of espresso cups to travellers ready at a gate for a flight to Louisville, Kentucky. The pilot, sporting an American flag tie, handed out the coffee while a different airline employee adopted supplying cream and sugar.
In accordance to Flack, the flight’s passengers had been waiting for replacement flight attendants to display up so that the flight could choose off.
“We’re making an attempt people,” the pilot explained to the group, in accordance to Flack.
—Eric Flack (@EricFlackTV) December 27, 2022
Flight monitoring reveals an 8:15 a.m. flight to Louisville did eventually depart Baltimore, albeit virtually two several hours late.
Insider reached out to Southwest for comment on the movie on Tuesday, and received the following statement:
“Hospitality is some thing Southwest is recognised for and we are appreciative of all of our Employees that are doing work hard to assistance a person a different all through these operational difficulties.”
Southwest has been facing common cancellations and delays as its struggled to get back up and running after serious winter season temperature grounded flights nationwide in the very last 7 days.
In accordance to Flightaware, Southwest had the most cancellations of any airline in the US on Tuesday, with 63% of their scheduled flights cancelled and 17% delayed. Denver International, Chicago Midway, and Las Vegas’ Harry Reid Airport were the most impacted airports.
The journey nightmare has attracted the consideration of the US Section of Transportation, which mentioned Monday it will be investigating the airline.
“USDOT is anxious by Southwest’s unacceptable charge of cancellations and delays & stories of lack of prompt shopper assistance,” the division reported in a tweet. “The section will study irrespective of whether cancellations were controllable and if Southwest is complying with its client assistance system.”
On Monday, Southwest issued a statement expressing that they are performing “urgently” to tackle the problem by repositioning their crew and fleet.
The airline admitted that their “continuing troubles are impacting our Customers and Staff in a substantial way that is unacceptable.”
“On the other aspect of this, we’ll get the job done to make issues correct for individuals we have let down, together with our Personnel,” the airline included.