Southwest Airlines resuming normal operations after Christmas week meltdown

DALLAS – Southwest Airlines operations appear to be returning to normal after more than a week of widespread cancellations.

According to FlightAware.com, Southwest has just 39 flight cancellations across the country as of 7 a.m. Friday. That’s just a small fraction of its schedule.

It’s a huge improvement over the past few days when more than 60% of the airline’s flights were scrubbed.

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News that things are returning to normal is a huge relief to passengers and employees.

More than a million people were affected by the airline’s system meltdown and more than 13,000 flights were canceled.

Southwest acknowledged inadequate and outdated technology left flight crews out of position across the country last week during freezing temperatures.

Still, there are plenty of passengers trying to track down their lost luggage.

“I’m just surprised. It was a nonstop flight, and the bags aren’t there. Like, we left from Panama City, came directly to Dallas and the bags aren’t here,” SWA passenger McKinlee Williams said. “Luckily, we brought some carry-on. We do have enough stuff.”

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“They don’t have any idea where the luggage is,” said Sandeep Kherde, whose family has been without their bags for five days. 

“How do we rely on the system? So, something needs to be done, this is something which we have never experienced and no one should,” his wife, Komal, added.

Earlier this week, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttagieg penned a letter to Southwest Airlines CEO Bob Jordan. He called the disruption unacceptable.

“I’m assigning USDOT resources to follow through on every complaint that comes in, and we will make sure that you will be compensated. And we will penalize Southwest tens of thousands of dollars for each violation if they fail to do what is required of them, to take care of passengers,” Buttigieg said.

Southwest does have a page on its website for people to request a refund and submit receipts for certain travel expenses.