Southwest Airlines’ latest recent updates come after 70% of flights were cancelled.

With consecutive days of extreme winter weather across our network behind us, continuing challenges are impacting our Customers and Employees in a significant way that is unacceptable.

IndiGo to operate widebody aircraft this winter(Opens in a new browser tab)

And our heartfelt apologies for this are just beginning.

We’re working with Safety at the forefront to urgently address wide-scale disruption by rebalancing the airline and repositioning Crews and our fleet ultimately to best serve all who plan to travel with us.

Southwest is the major airline in 23 of the top 25 travel markets in the U.S., and they were fully staffed and ready for the upcoming holiday weekend when the extreme weather swept over the continent. These operational circumstances compelled daily adjustments to flight schedule at a volume and magnitude that keeps the tools & employees use to recover the airline operating at capacity.

Boeing Forecasts Demand for More than 41,000 New Airplanes by 2041(Opens in a new browser tab)

To get back to normal reliability and reduce last-minute disruptions, deliberate, continuing safety-first action is required. We have decided to continue operating on a reduced schedule by flying around one-third of our schedule for the next few days as we attempt to recover our operation. Additionally, we’re making an effort to get in touch with Customers whose travel arrangements will alter in order to provide particular information and available solutions, also accessible at Southwest.com/traveldisruption.

Our Employees and Crews scheduled to work this holiday season are showing up in every single way. We are beyond grateful for that. Our shared goal is to take care of every single Customer with the Hospitality and Heart for which we’re known.

On the other side of this, we’ll work to make things right for those we’ve let down, including our Employees.

With no concern higher than ultimate Safety, the People of Southwest share a goal to take care of each and every Customer. We recognize falling short and sincerely apologize.