Southwest cancels 84% of Sacramento, CA airport flights
Mass flight cancellations by Southwest Airways have created mayhem throughout the U.S. for vacation vacationers, together with at Sacramento Worldwide Airport, the place greater than 80% of the airline’s flights had been canceled as of Tuesday morning.
Flight Conscious, flight monitoring web site, confirmed Sacramento Worldwide with the second-highest cancellation charge Tuesday amongst all U.S. airports, with 40% of arrivals and 40% of exits canceled throughout all airways as of two:30 p.m. Solely Buffalo Niagara Worldwide Airport in New York, which noticed ft of snow dump in current days, had greater charges at 86% of exits and 78% of arrivals canceled.
The cancellations pressured vacation vacationers to scramble for methods to make connections, go to family or simply get house. Caught in on this internet of journey distress had been Emily and Colter Bergh of Lake Placid, New York, whose canceled flights resulted in a cross-country odyssey from upstate New York to California for Christmas.
The household, with their three kids, in the end landed in Sacramento on Tuesday, days delayed.
“We had been alleged to get right here for Christmas Eve,” Emily, stated as she hunted by rows of baggage in Sacramento Worldwide Airport’s Terminal B.
As an alternative, Emily and her household had been stranded 30 hours in Chicago earlier than her husband was in a position to get onto a flight to Phoenix’s Sky Harbor Worldwide Airport, the place he rented a automotive for the marathon drive to Sacramento.
Meantime, Emily and their kids lastly discovered a flight to San Jose and hailed an Uber for the two-plus hour drive to Sacramento Worldwide Tuesday morning.
Southwest flight cancellations add up
Automotive rental corporations had been taxed as households just like the Berghs shifted from air to roads to map their approach by the labyrinth of stalled journey brought on by the large variety of canceled flights.
A staggering 57 of 68 Southwest flights set to reach at or depart from Sacramento Worldwide on Tuesday – about 84% – had been canceled, the airport’s web site confirmed as of 9 a.m.
By 12:45 p.m., the airport reported just one Southwest flight had departed from Sacramento, en path to Los Angeles after greater than a 90-minute delay.
Solely three Southwest flights had landed at Sacramento Worldwide, together with one from Denver that was practically two hours late and one from Las Vegas that landed greater than three hours late.
The airline’s 68 deliberate flights represented near two-thirds of the airport’s whole for the day.
Between 7 a.m. Monday and seven a.m. Tuesday, Southwest had canceled greater than 2,500 of its flights nationwide, or about 63% of its deliberate takeoffs, in keeping with real-time knowledge from Flight Conscious.
Even greater percentages of Southwest flights had been canceled at a number of main California airports. Flight Conscious knowledge confirmed 79% of the airline’s Tuesday flights at San Francisco Worldwide, 76% at Sacramento Worldwide and 75% at San Diego Worldwide canceled for the 24-hour interval ending 7 a.m. Tuesday.
“As we proceed the work to recuperate our operation, we’ve got made the choice to proceed working a decreased schedule by flying roughly one third of our schedule for the following a number of days,” Southwest Airways stated in a Monday assertion posted to its web site.
What occurred with Southwest
The foremost disruption follows an excessive arctic blast winter storm that pummeled the jap two-thirds of the nation beginning final week and persevering with into Christmas weekend, one of many busiest of the yr for air journey.
Vacationers posted pictures to social media Sunday and Monday displaying lengthy strains and piles of baggage at airports nationwide, together with Sacramento.
The U.S. Division of Transportation, in a press release posted to social media, stated it was “involved by Southwest’s unacceptable charge of cancellations and delays & reviews of lack of immediate customer support.”
“The Division will study whether or not cancellations had been controllable and if Southwest is complying with its customer support plan,” the division tweeted Monday night.
Southwest recorded by far the best flight cancellation charge Monday. Subsequent highest amongst U.S. home airways was Spirit, with 10% of its flights canceled from 7 a.m. Monday to 7 a.m. Tuesday, Flight Conscious numbers confirmed.
Southwest in a Monday information launch stated it was “absolutely staffed and ready for the approaching vacation weekend” however that mass cancellations had been introduced on by the winter storm.
Sacramento Worldwide on Tuesday reported no cancellations amongst 11 scheduled flights on Alaska Airways or 10 on Delta.
The saga continues
Emily Bergh was in a position to retrieve her household’s baggage.
“We misplaced 4 days of our five-day trip,” she stated.
Nonetheless the story doesn’t finish there. How they may get house remains to be an open query.
“Our return flights had been canceled,” she stated.
This story was initially printed December 27, 2022 8:09 AM.
Michael McGough anchors The Sacramento Bee’s breaking information reporting group, overlaying public security and different native tales. A Sacramento native and lifelong capital resident, he interned at The Bee whereas attending Sacramento State, the place he earned a level in journalism.
