And now here at home, we are seeing
the same chaos at our airport,
San Diego International Airport,
even though it's sunny and warm outside.
That's right. Those delays are
stretching across the country.
But Southwest Airlines seems
to have been the biggest mess.
They have it on their hands.
The airline tweeted this out
about 3 hours ago saying, quote,
we continue to experience high
call and social inquiry volumes.
Please check your flight status.
We're
gonna check in now with CBS 8.
Anna Laurel. We could not believe how
crowded it was earlier this morning.
Anna, you've been there all
morning long, and how is it now?
Any improvement at all?
No, it's worse, Neda. And we're
seeing people that we saw at
4:45 this morning now telling us that
their flights have been cancelled.
I just got on FlightAware.
I mean, I've been watching these numbers
explode today, right now, so far.
Southwest Airlines, 90 flights cancelled
here for San Diego, 68 delayed.
And what we're seeing is that those delays
end up becoming cancelled flights after
who knows how long people are waiting.
Let's take a look.
This is what it looks like right now.
So earlier this morning,
there were two lines,
one line for checked bags,
one line for that we're walking beside
has been like this all morning.
This is the cancelled flight line.
Well, now the checked bag line is very
short because most of these flights
are canceled and all of these people,
these people are waiting to get rebooked.
But Southwest has told us that
if you're flying back east or
going through the Midwest,
you're not getting on a plane until
probably December 28th at the earliest.
And so this didn't just start.
This morning,
like you guys mentioned,
it happened started happening over
the weekend.
We just talked to a family that had
been trying to fly to Denver since
Thursday and people have been so
frustrated with what's going on here.
Let me read you some tweets
we saw last night.
I've been to hell and it's terminal one at
the San Diego Airport on Christmas Day.
Another said was stuck at the San
Diego Airport for 10 hours when
my flight was finally cancelled.
And hey Southwest,
any update on where everyone's
bags are at the San Diego Airport?
We've been talking to people
all morning long.
Here's what they had to say.
Delayed again and delayed again and
finally cancelled at around 10 ish
when it's 80 degrees here and
I'm only going to Texas and
it's just 50 degrees there,
I had no idea it would be like this.
I'm supposed to be flying out
of Southwest Airlines tonight,
but I've been here since
yesterday at 4:00 o'clock in the
afternoon trying to get out.
Alright, so we spoke with an aviation expert.
He told us that southwest,
they run a really tight schedule.
They just have a 20 minute turn around.
So once things start having problems
like this weekend it just snowballs.
We spoke with somebody who said they were
actually out on the runway this morning
and then their pilot came out on the
loudspeaker on the plane and told them that
he was hitting his head on his 12 hour shift.
So he had to turn around
and come right back in.
OK, so this is what's happening
to a lot of people.
Look at this new line that's just.
Started to form in the last hour or two.
These people have all checked their bags
because they thought they had a flight.
Maybe it was delayed at the time,
so they've checked their bags.
Well now their flight is cancelled so they're
back in line trying to get their bags.
But there are hundreds of bags just sitting
around these carousels from the weekend, so.
Southwest employees are
doing their very best.
They've come through,
they're so kind and really they
understand everybody's frustration.
Harbor Police brought some
pizzas here for pizza,
who for people who had been stranded all day.
So people still trying to
help each other and be kind,
but certainly a lot of frustrated
travelers out here this afternoon
make sure you check your app.
And honestly, if you're flying southwest,
your flight probably canceled.
Probably 90 flights cancelled today,
you guys.
Back to you.