After days of canceled flights, raw nerves and customer outrage at airports across the country, the Southwest Airlines ticketing counter at Hartsfield-Jackson International on Friday had the vibe of a normal getaway day.
Sure there were some lines and yawns triggered by early wake-up calls for weary travelers to catch morning flights. But nothing like the calamity seen in U.S. airports after an epic holiday meltdown of the Dallas-based low-cost carrier.
Southwest returned to a relatively normal flight schedule following a chaotic week where frigid weather, technology issues and displaced crews led to thousands of canceled flights each day. The widespread meltdown drew condemnation from consumer watchdogs and frustrated passengers in addition to scrutiny and pending investigations from federal officials.
But several loyal Southwest fliers, including Sharissa Shannon, who returned to Atlanta from Tybee Island, said they had no issues Friday.
“It was smooth sailing,” said Shannon, who was on a morning flight from Savannah. “There was no concerns for me, at least, but I’m glad I missed that initial wave (of cancellations).”
Southwest canceled some 13,000 flights from Monday through Thursday, on top of thousands more last week amid the winter storm. The airline flew only about a third of its schedule for several days as it attempted a reset of its entire network. Southwest declined to say how many people have been affected, but it is likely that far more than 1 million have had a flight canceled.
As of 11 a.m. Friday, Flightaware.com reported more than 40 canceled Southwest flights across the country, including only one at Hartsfield-Jackson.
Credit: Natrice Miller / Natrice.Miller@
Credit: Natrice Miller / Natrice.Miller@
Southwest’s scrubbed flights were still more than United, American and Delta combined on Friday, but it was down from more than 2,360 that Southwest canceled on Thursday.
Airline executives said that crew-scheduling technology — a major cause of the meltdown — has caught up with the backlog of pilots and flight attendants stranded in wrong locations. Southwest operated 1,600 flights on Thursday, including 104 that carried no passengers but instead served to put planes and crews in position for full operations on Friday.
Southwest leaders believe they will have enough empty seats over the next several days to accommodate any stranded passengers still wishing to fly on the airline — while conceding that many had either given up or found other transportation.
Southwest CEO Bob Jordan told Good Morning America he’s confident Southwest’s systems are back in order and will be reliable through New Year’s weekend.
“There will be a lot of lessons learned in terms of what we can do to make sure that this never happens again, because this needs to never happen again,” he said.
But Southwest will have work to do to rebuild the airline’s reputation and customer trust.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg called Southwest’s number of cancellations “unacceptable” and said his office will investigate and enforce customer service standards.
Despite the wave of cancellations and walls of news coverage, Melissa Benjamin and her husband Jeff said they were confident their Southwest plane and flight crew would be ready to take them from Atlanta to Houston.
“We have faith in this place,” she said. “You’ve got to have faith in something, you know.”
Southwest opened a assistance portal at southwest.com/traveldisruption for travelers whose flights were impacted since Dec. 24. It has information on changing flights, requesting refunds, extra travel cost reimbursements and reconnecting with lost luggage.
“Beyond safety, there is no greater focus at this point than taking care of our customers, reuniting them with their bags and getting refunds processed,” Jordan told Good Morning America.
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