Southwest continues to cancel unprecedented number of flights at MSP, nationwide

Mia Laube KSTP

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As many holiday travelers and flight personnel still wait to get home Wednesday, Dec. 28, pressure is increasing on Southwest Airlines to provide solutions for its continuous high volume of cancellations.

By 7 a.m. Wednesday, the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport counted 34 canceled flights and 14 delayed flights. According to data on FlightAware around the same time, 88% of cancellations at MSP could be attributed to Southwest.

Across all flights, FlightAware reported Southwest was responsible was 62% of Wednesday morning cancellations.

Those numbers represent mounting frustration for U.S. travelers who were unable to visit loved ones for the holidays or got stuck on the way home.

Travelers lined up at the MSP airport the morning of Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2022. (Nate Bergeson/KSTP)

Many travelers’ woes over the holidays were due to uncontrollable wintry weather conditions; however, now that storms have passed, airline customers expected cancellation numbers to return to normal volumes.

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg spoke with ABC’s Good Morning America Wednesday morning, saying the issue is “past the point” that it could be blamed on weather conditions.

The U.S. Department of Transportation has begun investigating the airline’s operations as Americans look for answers as to why the delays and cancellations might be happening.

USDOT is concerned by Southwest’s unacceptable rate of cancellations and delays & reports of lack of prompt customer service. The Department will examine whether cancellations were controllable and if Southwest is complying with its customer service plan.
— U.S. Department of Transportation (@USDOT) December 27, 2022

"We are past the point where they could say this is a weather-driven issue."

Secretary of Transportation @PeteButtigieg on Southwest's mass cancellations. https://t.co/SLHh3UmvFb pic.twitter.com/OPKCa1Bw1j
— Good Morning America (@GMA) December 28, 2022

Tuesday night, Southwest expressed its apologies online for the “wide-scale disruptions.” See the tweet below for the full statement.

On the heels of wide-scale disruptions, we're working diligently to Safely recover our operation & accommodate displaced Customers & Crews. We know this is unacceptable & sincerely apologize. If your travel was impacted, explore self-service options here: https://t.co/B6L8HR9Yqc pic.twitter.com/mLWndYMned
— Southwest Airlines (@SouthwestAir) December 28, 2022

Around 8 a.m. Wednesday, Thrifty Traveler’ editor’s Kyle Potter tweeted Southwest has canceled nearly 10,000 flights from Sunday through Wednesday morning.

Check back for updates as 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS monitors the situation at the MSP airport and nationwide.

Find the latest MSP flight information here.

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