In the midst of a meltdown which stranded thousands of customers and that worsened as other airlines began to recover from the holiday winter storm, Southwest Airlines Co. canceled about two-thirds of its flights on Monday.
In the aftermath of canceling thousands of flights over the Christmas weekend, Southwest Airlines’ LUV, +1.78% posted 2,700 scrapped flights Monday, the most of any major U.S. airline.
Approximately 8,000 flights were canceled by the airline between Thursday and Monday, according to FlightAware.
In the eastern half of the country, which had been battered by snow, wind, and subfreezing temperatures in the previous days, the problems at Southwest intensified Monday despite generally improving weather conditions.
Southwest executives spent much of the weekend, including Christmas Day, discussing the problems, people familiar with the matter said. Despite their efforts, they were unable to turn the airline around.
Southwest’s woes arose from bad weather, Southwest’s flight routes and execution challenges, including a crew scheduling system that buckled under the volume of changes, managers and union leaders said.
