Southwest cancels more than 2,800 flights in a 'full-blown meltdown

Updated December 26, 20229:01 PM ET（Eastern time）

ASHLEY AHN

Southwest Airlines canceled at least 70% of its flights on Monday. In this file photo, travelers wait to check in at the Southwest ticketing counter at Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport last year.

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

A historic winter storm has tangled holiday travel and brought?dangerous conditions?to a big chunk of the United States, but no airline has struggled more to navigate the Christmas holiday rush than Southwest Airlines.

一場歷史性的冬季暴雪,使美國處于厚雪危機，假期出行亂作一團。但沒有哪家航空公司比西南航空更急于應(yīng)對圣誕假期的飛行高峰期。

Southwest canceled more than 2,870 flights by 8:25 p.m. ET Monday — at least 70% of its schedule for the day, according to flight tracker?FlightAware. The disruptions add to chaos that has left people stranded at airports across the country, many of them with little idea of when they can get home or where their bags are.

根據(jù)航班追蹤公司FlightAware的數(shù)據(jù)，截至美國東部時間周一晚上8點25分，西南航空被迫取消了2870多個航班，至少占當天航班計劃的70%。這次中斷加劇了混亂的場面，那些被迫滯留在全國各地機場的旅客，他們中許多人根本不知道什么時候可以回家，也不知道自己的行李在哪里。

The number of canceled flights for Southwest is more than 10 times higher than for Delta, which had the second-most cancelations by a U.S. airline with 265 flights called off. Other airlines?have also ordered?large-scale cancellations in the past week.

西南航空取消航班數(shù)量是達美航空的10多倍，而達美航空是美國取消航班數(shù)量第二大的航空公司，有265個航班。在之后的一周,其他航空公司也大規(guī)模的取消航班訂單。

Southwest says its crew scheduling process is partly to blame

西南航空表示部分原因歸結(jié)于機組人員調(diào)度流程

Southwest spokesperson Chris Perry told NPR the airline's disruptions are a result of the winter storm's lingering effects, adding that it hopes to "stabilize and improve its operation" with more favorable weather conditions.

西南航空發(fā)言人克里斯·佩里對NPR表示，航班中斷是冬季風暴持續(xù)影響的結(jié)果，并補充道，如果天氣條件有所改善，航班將有希望穩(wěn)定并加大運行。

Other issues that have exacerbated the airline's struggle to accommodate the holiday rush include problems with "connecting flight crews to their schedules," Perry said. That issue has made it difficult for employees to access crew scheduling services and get reassignments.

佩里說，其他的問題也加劇了航空公司,在應(yīng)對假期高峰期方面的困難，包括“對接機組人員的個人日程”的問題。這個問題使得員工很難進入機組調(diào)度服務(wù)并獲得重新分配。

Kyle Potter, executive editor of?Thrifty Traveler, called it an incredibly complex task for an airline with a network as vast as Southwest's to coordinate staffing and scheduling, particularly after weather delays.

Thrifty Traveler 的執(zhí)行編輯凱爾·波特（Kyle Potter）稱，航線的安排是一個極其復(fù)雜的任務(wù),尤其在用一個和西南航空一樣龐大的網(wǎng)絡(luò)去協(xié)調(diào)人員配置和日程安排且在天氣延誤之后。

But with many areas seeing clear skies on Monday, the airline would seem to have few obvious reasons to cancel so many flights. Potter calls it a "full-blown meltdown."

但在周一，隨著多地區(qū)晴空萬里，航空公司似乎沒有什么明顯的理由取消這么多航班。波特稱之為“全面崩潰”

"This is really as bad as it gets for an airline," Potter said. "We've seen this again and again over the course of the last year or so, when airlines really just struggle especially after a storm, but there's pretty clear skies across the country."

波特說：“這對一家航空公司來說已經(jīng)是最糟的了。在過去一年左右的時間里，我們一次又一次看到了這種情況，尤其是在風暴過后，航空公司真的很掙扎，但全國各地的天空都很晴朗。

For Southwest, the situation?started unraveling?before the Christmas weekend. To have extensive cancellations continue on Monday, Potter said, "is a clear, clear sign something has gone horribly wrong

對于西南航空來說，圣誕節(jié)周末之前，情況開始失控。波特說，周一仍有大量的訂單取消，“這是一個明顯的、明確的跡象，表明一些事情已經(jīng)出現(xiàn)了嚴重的問題。

Holiday travelers see their plans upended

假期的旅行者眼睜睜看著他們的計劃被推翻

From?Houston, Texas, and?Tampa, Fla., to?Cleveland, Ohio, and?Denver, Colo., passengers are sharing photos and video of overwhelmed baggage claim areas and long lines at reservation counters. At Southwest, the customer service phone line's hold times averaged more than two hours, sometimes reaching four hours, according to?Colorado Public Radio.

從德克薩斯州的休斯頓和佛羅里達州的坦帕，到俄亥俄州的克利夫蘭和科羅拉多州的丹佛，乘客們正在分享行李領(lǐng)取區(qū)不堪重負的照片和視頻，及預(yù)訂柜臺排長隊的情況。據(jù)科羅拉多公共廣播電臺報道，在西南地區(qū)，客戶服務(wù)電話線的等待時間平均超過兩小時，有時達到四小時。

"I'm okay with these travel situations and fly on by myself when it's just me, but when my one-year-old has to suffer through it because of ineptitude and mismanagement, that becomes personal," Southwest passenger Joshua Caudle, who said he was unsure when they would be able to leave Denver, said on?Denver7 News. "I'm never going to do this with that company again."

西南航空公司的乘客喬舒亞·考德爾（Joshua Caudle）在丹佛7新聞頻道（Denver7 News）上表示，“在只有我一個人的時候,獨自飛行時，我還可以應(yīng)對這些旅行和飛行狀況，但當我一歲的孩子因為無能和管理不善而不得不忍受這種情況時，這就成為了個人的麻煩,我不確定能不能離開丹佛，我絕不會再一次和這個航空公司合作。

A Southwest passenger who says she was attempting to fly from Missouri to Denver said she missed spending Christmas with her family after several delays and cancellations to flights out of the Kansas City International Airport. Despite her being grounded, her luggage was sent to Denver without her, she wrote on?Twitter.

一名西南航空公司的乘客表示，她正試圖從密蘇里州飛往丹佛。她說，在堪薩斯城國際機場的航班多次延誤和取消后，她錯過了與家人共度圣誕節(jié)。她在推特上寫道，盡管她被禁飛，但她的行李還是被送到了丹佛。

Airlines have been hit with renewed demand

航空公司已經(jīng)受到更新需要的打擊

Airlines have been?struggling to bounce back?after losing tens of billions of dollars during the pandemic's worst months. Staffing shortages have plagued airlines as they try to accommodate Americans' return to air travel. And Southwest has not been the only airline to falter under the demand.

航空公司在疫情最嚴重的幾個月?lián)p失了數(shù)百億美元后，一直在努力恢復(fù)。人員短缺困擾著航空公司，因為他們試圖滿足美國人返回的需求。西南航空并不是唯一一家在需求面前步履蹣跚的航空公司。

Thousands of Delta pilots?picketed?at major airports this summer, calling for higher pay and highlighting staff concerns as passengers faced flight cancellations during the Fourth of July holiday rush. Last month, Delta pilots voted to?authorize a strike?after negotiations for a new contract were paused.

今年夏天，數(shù)千名達美飛行員在各大機場舉行抗議，呼吁提高工資，并強調(diào)了員工的精神壓力，因為在7月4日假期高峰期間，乘客面臨航班取消。上個月，在新合同談判暫停后，達美飛行員投票批準罷工

"Every airline across the country, Southwest included, got really small at the start of the pandemic when travel basically fell off a cliff, and they have struggled as travel has rebounded to grow back up to 100% and they're still not there," Potter said.

包括西南地區(qū)在內(nèi)，全國各地的每家航空公司在疫情開始時都沒做好準備，旅行基本上跌入了懸崖，但他們一直在努力去恢復(fù)到100%，但現(xiàn)在仍然沒有實現(xiàn)，”波特說。

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Baggage?Claim?Areas

?means those areas of the Terminal designated for delivery of in- bound baggage to arriving passengers and also those areas of the enclosed baggage road designated for delivery of baggage from the aircraft into the Terminal

as good as it gets?

:used to say that nothing better is possible or available?