Stranded Southwest fliers face days of waiting as anger, scrutiny over meltdown grow

Travelers stranded by the meltdown at Southwest Airlines face days of waiting as the airline struggles to rebuild systems battered by holiday storms and faces growing anger and scrutiny from Congress and federal regulators about how the debacle happened.

Thousands remained stuck Tuesday, with many left with few other travel options and Southwest saying new flights might not be available for several days.

Airlines canceled more than 5,000 flights as of Tuesday evening, the majority of them — 2,672 flights — with Southwest Airlines, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware.

In California, hundreds of flights have been delayed or canceled through the end of the week — making up much of the Southwest schedule.

Passengers sat curbside at Los Angeles International Airport, and dozens of fliers lined up at the rental car counter at Hollywood Burbank Airport, with nearly 100 more waiting inside and outside the facility.

Southwest Chief Executive Bob Jordan told the Wall Street Journal that the airline planned to operate at around one-third of regular capacity as it tries to regroup and get the schedule back on track.

“This is the largest-scale event that I’ve ever seen," he said.

All flights showed as unavailable on the company's website Tuesday morning. In an email, Southwest spokesperson Chris Perry said that inventory to book travel is "very low," but flights are still operating.

In a video posted to Twitter shortly after 5 p.m., Jordan apologized and said the airline is doing everything it can "to return to a normal operation."

The chief executive said brutal winter storms that swept across the county "brought challenges for all airlines," and that Southwest's operations count on all pieces, especially aircraft and crews, "remaining in motion to where they're planned to go."

With airplanes and flight crews out of position in dozens of locations, and after trying to operate as much of the flight schedule as possible over the Christmas holiday weekend, the airline "reached a decision point" to reduce flights in order to catch up, Jordan said. The airline is focused on safely getting all needed pieces back into position.

"The tools we use to recover from disruption serve us well 99% of the time, but clearly, we need to double down on our already existing plans to upgrade systems for these extreme circumstances so that we never again face what's happening right now," he said.

Southwest will fly a reduced schedule for the next few days and will reposition crews and airplanes, Jordan said. The airline is optimistic that operations will be "back on track before next week."

Andy Robinson waited in line at the Southwest terminal for a hotel voucher after his flight home to Denver was canceled. Robinson, who had been in L.A. with his family to watch the Denver Broncos play the Rams at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood on Christmas Day, managed to snag a flight home on Thursday, but it is getting jostled by cancellations and other delays.

“I'm trying to look at it positively. I'm in California," said Robinson, whose relative suggested they drive to Denver. "I'm in flip-flops."

Elsewhere in Southern California, 18 outbound Southwest flights — or two-thirds of its services — were canceled at Hollywood Burbank Airport on Tuesday, according to the mobile flight tracker Flightview. John Wayne Airport in Orange County had 51 outbound Southwest flights canceled and seven delayed Tuesday morning, while San Diego saw some of the biggest disruptions, with 89 departing Southwest flights canceled and 28 delayed, according to FlightAware.

Despite paying $60 for an early check-in, Roger and Jane Truesdale were among the hundreds of passengers at Burbank on Tuesday whose flights were canceled and were told the earliest they could fly out was Saturday.

But the Estes Park, Colo., couple, in town to visit their son for the holidays, did not pack enough medicine to last through the week. They were looking at other air carriers, they said, noting that renting a car or taking a bus wasn’t an option.

“It isn’t ideal," said Roger Truesdale, 77, "but we have to get back home and hopefully we’ll find a good substitute."

Southwest Airlines blamed a catastrophic winter storm that swept across the northern half of the country over the holiday weekend for the cancellations, adding in a statement that “our heartfelt apologies for this are just beginning. ... We recognize falling short and sincerely apologize.”

But U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said weather was not the only factor that led to the Southwest Airlines meltdown.