all lined up and nowhere to go. Right now passengers are
stranded at airports all across the country as
Southwest Airlines pulls anothe 2507 flights off the
boards. I'm holly Firfer in for veronica de la Cruz and
this is Newsy live. This airlines logistical nightm
causing travel turmoil for 1000. So let's talk about
how we got here. Southwest woes started with las
week's winter weather and it started canceling flights
on december 22nd. But since then all other major U.S.
Airlines have been able to restore service and reroute
flights whereas Southwest has canceled more than 15,700
flights during a six day period. At the very heart of
the issue is an outdated crew scheduling system
basically, which has turned critical functions like
locating and assigning pilots and flight attendants
into nearly insurmountable tasks. The situation only
worsened by high sick out rates due to covid flu and
RSV cases. And though the airline ceo has apologized,
he says Southwest is hoping to be on track before next
week, which means some travelers could remain in limbo
for days. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has
slammed the situation is quote unacceptable and has
vowed to hold the airline responsible for this me
All right, we have team coverage for you this hour with
Newsy White House correspondent, kellan Howell in
Washington for us with a report on the biden
administration's plan to investigate Southwest. But
let's begin with Newsy national correspondent Ma
Sirianni live for us at the world's busiest airport
Hartsfield Jackson Internationa Airport in Atlanta and
Maura, I mean, what a mess. So how are things looking
right now And how about for the coming days ahead Hey
holly good afternoon to you. So here on the ground,
I'll step out of the shot here because you can see
behind me, this is the southwest ticket counter here a
Hartsfield Jackson, there's a bit of a line. Normally
this thing would be packed people waiting sometimes
into the parking lot. I don't know if it's due to
cancelations. More than 2500 today, like you mentioned,
but I'm just not seeing as many people here at least at
this airport at the south southwest ticket counter as I
normally do. So in a statement from the airline
officials say they will continue to operate on a
reduced schedule until they can get things back on
track. That includes flying one third of the scheduled
flights for the next several days. So that is their
plan moving forward. Now the airline initially blaming
the disruptions on weather saying this was something
that was out of their hands. But as we saw as things
cleared up as the weather cleared up really across the
country. Um, like you mentioned, the problems just
persisted. So we've since heard from officials with the
pilots union, with the flight attendants union, they
say the part of the staff just couldn't get a hold of
crew scheduling due to an antiquated system and
outdated scheduling software. U I spoke with a
passenger this morning Alice Whitehead here in Atlanta.
She is actually trying to get back to Chicago. She
tells me the Southwest flight disruptions pretty much
ruined her holiday. Listen, we arrived at the airport
three hours early. Um, our plane was delayed, delayed,
delayed about eight times. We didn't leave the airport
in Chicago on 23 December until 11 something at night.
We arrived in Atlanta. It was around one something in
the morning, we lost the whole day. It was disgusting.
I had never experienced that in my life. And so you
know, this kind of comes with the territory when you
travel around the holidays, you do expect some
cancelations and some delays. But passengers who I've
talked to today and over the past couple of days say
that they never expected anything like this. Um, some
of those travelers across really at airports across the
country have gotten separated from their luggage so
they're still trying to track that down the good news
here. If there is any good news, Southwest is trying
make it easy for folks to get reimbursed. They say you
can either call or go on their website back to you, wow,
what a mess Maura Sirianni reporting live from
Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport, thank
you so much and we hope that those people can get home
and as we mentioned at the top of the hour
Transportation Secretary Pete b Judge is vowing to
conduct a full investigation into Southwest smell town.
He's spoken with Southwest ceo and says the airline's
executives are willing to do whatever it takes to
compensate passengers for their money their time and
their trouble. Southwest is goi to have to not only
make them financially whole but but find a way to
really rebuild trust and confidence again. They pledged
to me that they're going to do that. I want to see
exactly what that means. Well, Newsy White House
correspondent kellan Howell continues our team coverage
with more on the White House's plans to address the
issue and make sure that it doesn't happen again.
Upwards of 70% of Southwest flights scheduled for
monday and Tuesday have now been canceled or delayed
and that's obviously trickling into today and down into
the rest of the week. It's a situation the Department
of Transportation is calling unacceptable. They twee
this on monday. U.S. Department of Transportation is
concerned by Southwest unext rate of cancelations and
delays and reports of lack of prompt customer service
The department will examine whether cancelations we
controllable and if Southwest is complying with its
customer service plan. Department of Transportation
Secretary Pete buddha Judges saying that these
cancelations have clearly cross the line from a bad
weather situation to something that is in Southwest
direct responsibility. He also says he has been in
contact with Southwest Ceo as well as major airline
unions talking about the need to give those customers
who are experiencing these cancelations and delays
compensation refunds for canceled flight tickets, meal
vouchers and hotel vouchers and he's been quite
critical of Southwest saying th need to do more and
be more proactive in their customer service. Listen,
when you're in this situation and the airline is
responsible, which is clearly the case right now, then
you can get those kinds of vouchers for hotels
restaurants. But what I talked about with Southwest Ceo
is that a passenger shouldn't have to request that they
need to be proactively offering that he pledged that
they would and again, we'll be watching to make sure
that they follow through. Also told CNN that the
Department of Transportation would hold Southwest
accountable would even use its authority to levy fines
where they found it necessary. Also, the Senate
Commerce Committee is now saying they will be looking
into this situation as well with two Democratic member
of that committee calling on the airlines to provide
significant compensation to those customers who have
been impacted. Southwest Ceo has apologized for any
inconvenience to consumers and has said that they have
dedicated teams that are working on getting those
customers the refunds and compensation that they are
owed. He also said he hopes that the airline will be
back on track by next week back to you. Well, one claim
that will likely get the attention of federal
investigators comes directly from Southwest flight
attendants who say news of this week's system failure
is just no surprise. Lynn Montgomery, president of t
airline transport workers union representing Southwest
flight attendant says the company's upper management
has been aware of the weaknesses in its schedulin
system for years because its staff has repeatedly filed
complaints about it. How does an airline like Southwest
get caught off guard with inclement weather Because
weather is a part of what we have to experience ever
every year, every season, we have huge winter storms.
The problem is Southwest airlines executives have not
invested in the I.T. And given us the the I.T.
Infrastructure to be able to operate when inclement
weather gets in the way, even though we were better
positioned than any other airline financially, we make
billions of dollars. It is concerning though that we
recently just gave dividends to our shareholders and we
are still waiting on uh contracts with most of its
labor groups and yet we have not invested in the
infrastructure in order for for things like what
happened today not to occur. In fact this is not the
first time Southwest flight attendants have names for
when these catastrophic events have occurred basically
since 2016. We've had tech NATO Snowmageddon, we've h
Snowmageddon. We we've had you know so many events that
it's just getting to be um beyond the point of, I'm
sorry from executives, we need to see that they're held
accountable, we need to see a plan of action and we
need to make sure that we are not going to be placed in
this position again. And of course, the fix for
Southwest's logistical woes is down the road, which
does little to help passengers stuck at airports ar
searching for lost bags. But here's some information
that may help you down the road. So according to the
new york times, the number one thing you can do to keep
track of your luggage is to clearly label the exterior
with your initials and phone number or use a tracking
device like an air tag that's also recommended. And if
for any reason your bag doesn't arrive when you do,
they say do not leave the airport without conta
the airline and filing a claim.