NEW ORLEANS — The brutal winter storm that swept through the U.S. is causing major problems for air travelers, especially for Southwest Airlines passengers at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport.
According to flimsy.com, as of 8:00 a.m. Southwest has only 5 flights scheduled on time and 38 flights canceled flying out of New Orleans International Airport.
As of 10 p.m. Eastern on Monday, more than 3,900 flights within, into, or out of the U.S. have been canceled, according to the tracking site FlightAware.
Southwest Airlines accounted for the vast majority of those canceled flights and eventually apologized to passengers and employees for the "unacceptable" situation. In many cases, stranded passengers were told it would be at least three or four days before they could be rebooked on another Southwest flight.
FlightAware said Southwest had 2,902 cancellations Monday - about 71% of its scheduled flights for the day and ten times as many as any other major U.S. carrier. For comparison, Delta Airlines had the second-most cancellations Monday for a U.S. carrier with around 268, about 9% of its scheduled flights.
The U.S. Department of Transportation said Monday evening it was "concerned" by the high number of cancellations and reports of lacking customer service. The federal agency said it would be examining whether the "cancellations were controllable."
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