Tag Archives: airlines

Southwest Reports Holiday Meltdown Cost $825 Million

ABC News reports: The holiday meltdown at Southwest Airlines last month cost the company as much as $825 million in lost revenue and added expenses, the company said in a government filing on Friday. Southwest, the largest domestic airline in the U.S., canceled more than 16,000 flights over an 11-day period at the end of December, the filing said. Southwest …

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Southwest Offers Customers 25K Frequent Flier Points

CBS News reports: Southwest Airlines, which angered customers with thousands of flight cancellations over the holidays, is offering 25,000 frequent-flier points to travelers who were affected by the epic meltdown. Southwest CEO Bob Jordan wrote in a letter to impacted travelers that the 25,000 points have a value of more than $300, will never expire and carry no blackout dates. …

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Flights To And From Florida Halted Over Radar Issue

Orlando’s NBC affiliate reports: Shortly after 1 p.m. on Monday, social media began swarming with reports of flights heading into Florida being halted or canceled. The FAA told WESH 2: “The FAA has slowed the volume of traffic into Florida airspace due to an air traffic computer issue that is being resolved.” Miami International Airport stated that there was a …

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Southwest CEO Vows To Reimburse Passengers [VIDEO]

The Hill reports: The CEO of Southwest Airlines, Bob Jordan, promised that the airline will provide reimbursements to those who were affected by its thousands of cancellations over the past week, saying the “desire is to go above and beyond.” Jordan said in an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Friday that the storm that led to the airline …

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Southwest Claims Return To “Normal” Schedules Today

CNN reports: Southwest Airlines says it’s set up to resume normal schedules on Friday after a tumultuous eight days that left hundreds of thousands of passengers delayed or stranded and prompted its executives to make apologies to the riding public and government officials. In a statement released Thursday — following another bruising day in which a further 2,362 flights were …

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Southwest Passengers Battle Airline Over Lost Bags

USA Today reports: It’s not just thousands of people with canceled Southwest Airlines flights being stranded at airports across the nation, but also thousands of pieces of their checked in luggage – even if the owner never got on a flight.  Some passengers said they have been separated from baby gear, medicine and other important items. In the immediate aftermath …

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Chaos Continues For Southwest Airlines Passengers

The Associated Press reports: Families hoping to catch a Southwest Airlines flight after days of cancellations, missing luggage and missed family connections suffered through another wave of scrubbed flights, with another 2,500 pulled from arrival and departure boards Wednesday. According to the FlightAware tracking service, more than 91% of all canceled flights in the U.S. Wednesday were from Southwest. This …

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Southwest CEO “Truly Sorry” About Travel Meltdown

The Associated Press reports: In a video that Southwest posted late Tuesday, CEO Robert Jordan said Southwest would operate a reduced schedule for several days but hoped to be “back on track before next week.” Jordan blamed the winter storm for snarling the airline’s “highly complex” network. He said Southwest’s tools for recovering from disruptions work “99% of the time, …

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Biden Vows To Hold Airlines Accountable For Chaos

USA Today reports: President Joe Biden said his administration will hold airlines accountable after nationwide flight cancellations following an extreme winter storm this past week. Thousands of flights were canceled this week, with many being from Southwest Airlines. “The Committee will be looking into the causes of these disruptions and its impact to consumers,” Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., chair of the …

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Flight Makes Emergency Landing Due To Laptop Fire

ABC News reports: A Lufthansa flight from Los Angeles to Frankfurt, Germany, made an unscheduled landing at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport after a passenger’s laptop caught fire, the airline said. Monday night’s landing at O’Hare was a precautionary step after an overheated laptop caused a small fire in the passenger cabin, the airline said. None of the passengers were injured, …

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Feds To Investigate Operations At Southwest Airlines

The Associated Press reports: Major U.S. airlines were broadsided by the massive weekend winter storm that swept across large swaths of the country but had largely recovered heading into Monday, except for one. Problems at Southwest Airlines appeared to snowball after the worst of the storm passed. The disparity has triggered a closer look at Southwest operations by the U.S. …

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Southwest Has Already Canceled 2500+ Flights Today

CNN Business reports: Air travelers in the US hoping for clear skies on Tuesday following a disastrous week of weather-related flight cancellations and delays will have to extend their patience a few more days — particularly if they’re flying with Southwest Airlines. More than 2,845 flights within, into or out of the US have already been canceled for Tuesday as …

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Air Travel Chaos As Southwest Cancels Most Flights

The New York Times reports: Thousands of travelers were stranded at U.S. airports on Monday as a wave of canceled flights — many of them operated by Southwest Airlines — spoiled holiday plans and kept families from returning home during one of the busiest and most stressful travel stretches of the year. More than 3,700 flights in the United States …

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Mayhem Continues For Air Travelers Nationwide

USA Today reports: More than 3,000 flights were cancelled across the U.S. on Christmas Day as a brutal winter storm and frigid cold weather swept much of the country over the weekend. Flight-tracking website FlightAware reported 3,487 cancellations on Sunday and 7,163 delays in the U.S. As of Monday morning, another 1,452 flights were canceled and 980 were delayed across …

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JetBlue Flight Evacuated At JFK Over Laptop Fire

CBS News reports: Emergency responders evacuated a JetBlue flight at JFK International Airport in New York City as a result of a small fire in a passenger’s laptop on Saturday evening, officials said. Officials from the FAA, JetBlue and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said the aircraft was taxing to a gate at Terminal 5 when …

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Buttigieg Monitors Airlines During Chaotic Travel Week

Politico reports: Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said he is watching how airlines perform amid a winter storm that will sock most of the country and create blizzard conditions in some states — a storm that was already snarling travel Thursday morning in advance of its path. Buttigieg this week praised the airline industry for what he suggested was a seamless …

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8000+ Flights Canceled As Holiday Storm Worsens

The Daily Beast reports: Airlines have canceled more than 5,000 flights for Thursday and preemptively nixed more than 3,200 for Friday as extreme winter weather sweeps the nation right before Christmas, according to tracking website FlightAware, spelling trouble for people trying to rush home for the holidays. Airports in Chicago and Denver have been hit hardest, with around 25 percent …

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2000 Flights Canceled As Winter Storm Bears Down

Forbes reports: More than 1,250 flights have been canceled on Thursday and another 700 nixed on Friday, according to data from FlightAware, an app that provides real-time, historical, and predictive flight tracking data. Cancellations are expected to climb over the coming days. As of early this morning, a combined 249 flights are canceled Thursday out of Chicago’s O’Hare and Midway …

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Blizzard Conditions Likely To Snarl Holiday Travel

AccuWeather reports: Meteorologists warn an expansive snowstorm is set to unfold across parts of the center of the country before the end of the week and jeopardize holiday travel plans ahead of the Christmas weekend. The timing of this cross-country winter storm could not be worse, as millions rush to finish their shopping or embark on their holiday travels. Ahead …

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Airlines Issue Travel Waivers Ahead Of “Bomb Cyclone”

CNN reports: Key US airlines have issued travel waivers ahead of what’s forecast to be a brutal “bomb cyclone” of wintry weather in the Midwest and other regions later this week. The important aviation hub of Chicago is forecast to be one of the cities hit the hardest, with the National Weather Service warning of the potential for a blizzard. …

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