Henry Harteveldt, another airline analyst, said in an email that Southwest’s structure made it “uniquely vulnerable to weather problems, especially one as geographically extensive and as intensive as this storm has been.”
“I don’t recall seeing an airline experience such a massive operational problem as we are currently seeing at Southwest,” he said.
Making matters worse for customers: Southwest has a policy of not exchanging tickets with other airlines, so the airline could not rebook passengers on other flights, Mr. Harteveldt said. The debacle could force the airline to “buy back” frustrated customers with deeper discounts or conduct more promotions, he said.
No single region or airport bore the brunt of the cancellations. On Tuesday morning, more than 155 flights originating at Denver International Airport, or about 17 percent of its outgoing traffic, were canceled, and more than 115 flights, or about 38 percent, were canceled out of Chicago Midway International. More than 100 flights were also canceled at Harry Reid International in Las Vegas, and similar numbers were reported for Baltimore-Washington International, Dallas Love Field in Texas and Nashville International in Tennessee.
It’s been nearly a week since the winter storm began wreaking havoc for millions of people counting on airlines to get them from point A to B. The number of canceled flight began to rise last Thursday, when airlines called off more than 2,600 of them. The next day, nearly 6,000, or about a quarter of all U.S. flights, were canceled across the country. On Saturday, Christmas Eve, nearly 3,500 flights were canceled, and slightly fewer, at about 3,200, were cut from the schedules on Christmas Day.
The recovery is just beginning in areas like Buffalo, where at least 28 people died and roads remained impassable after the area’s worst winter storm in more than 50 years. A driving ban remained in place, where the snow was expected to finally end early Tuesday after accumulations of up 49 inches. Many streets have not been plowed, and vehicles remained stranded on roads, Gov. Kathy Hochul said on Monday.
Most power outages had been restored after affecting more than 1 million customers at the storm’s peak, but thousands remained without power in Maine and New York early Tuesday, according to poweroutage.us.
Steve Lohr contributed reporting.
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