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Why Southwest Airlines canceled so many flights during the busiest holiday travel week of the year

“The Southwest of old is gone,” said Casey Murray, president of the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association.

FILE - A Southwest Airlines jetliner sits at a gate on the C concourse of Denver International Airport on Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2021, in Denver. A Southwest Airlines pilot is suing the company, her union and a former colleague who pleaded guilty last year to stripping naked in front of her during a flight, Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2022. C(AP Photo/David Zalubowski) (David Zalubowski, Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Southwest Airlines travelers faced a brutal capstone to their Christmas weekend, as the Dallas-based carrier canceled more than 70% of its flights Monday — approximately 2,900 of them, according to the flight tracking site FlightAware. Another 63% had been canceled by Tuesday, the site said.

While most other U.S. airlines also canceled some flights as a result of the unprecedented winter storm that swept across the U.S., none were as hard-hit as Southwest. On Monday, the airline confirmed it would be operating at just one-third capacity “for the next several days.”

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