INDIANAPOLIS — When all was said and done on Tuesday, Southwest Airlines canceled around 200 flights that were due to fly out of the Indianapolis International Airport.
That was on top of an additional 43 flights that were canceled the day before as part of Southwest’s nationwide meltdown with over 2,600 flights canceled throughout the country. Thousands of passengers have been left stranded because of the debacle.
Another 40 flights are canceled for Wednesday.
“I can’t get a hold of anybody,” said Darin Graybill, a Southwest passenger stuck in Indianapolis trying to get back home to Washington state. “I can’t change my flights. I can’t do anything on the phone or online, so figured I’d try to come down here and talk with somebody a person who can hopefully help us.”
Graybill told WISH-TV he also tried flying out of Chicago and has been staying with his in-laws near Lafayette.
Southwest executives have partly blamed the recent string of bad winter weather having hit Southwest’s two biggest hubs in Chicago and Denver. However, the head of the pilots union said that Southwest’s infrastructure used to make schedule pilots and flight crews is outdated.
It’s been said that Southwest flight crews are scattered throughout the US and unable to staff flights.
“They need to take care of their passengers and they need to take care of their employees,” said Pete Buttigieg, U.S. Transportation Secretary. “Everybody understands there is extreme weather across the country. But, where most airlines saw their performance start to improve, Southwest has moved in the other direction.”
Buttigieg said that his department will be looking into what went wrong with Southwest Airlines during one of the busiest travel periods of the year. He called the meltdown “unacceptable.”
“We’re going to have to take a deeper look at what’s going on with their scheduling systems; other issues that may have contributed to this,” said Buttigieg, the former South Bend, Indiana mayor. “While we all understand you can’t control the weather, this has clearly crossed the line.”
Southwest said they are offering full refunds on flights canceled as well as flight credits that will not expire.
