Southwest Airlines continued to cancel hundreds of flights in Chicago Tuesday, after passengers experienced chaos amid canceled flights at Midway Airport the previous day.
As of 9:15 a.m. Monday, 241 flights had been canceled at Midway and 68 had been canceled at O’Hare. The majority of the flights — including all but one at Midway — were on Southwest Airlines, according to the website FlightAware.
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Southwest had been the target of passengers’ ire at airlines Monday, as Chicago’s cold snap showed signs of ending and other airlines began to recover from the weather and winds of the previous days. The carrier canceled 304 flights at Midway Monday, according to FlightAware.
By Monday evening, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced it was looking into the “unacceptable” level of disruption for Southwest customers and would examine whether the cancellations were controllable, and whether Southwest was complying with its customer service plan.
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The cancellations in Chicago were part of the disruptions Southwest was experiencing nationwide after winter storms swept across the country. The carrier canceled more than 2,900 flights systemwide Monday, and more than 2,500 by 9:30 a.m. Tuesday.
Airline executives apologized in a statement Monday. They said they were working to reposition crew and aircraft and rebalance the airline.
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The carrier will continue operating a reduced schedule and fly about one-third of scheduled flights for several days, according to the statement.
“With consecutive days of extreme winter weather across our network behind us, continuing challenges are impacting our Customers and Employees in a significant way that is unacceptable,” the carrier said.
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sfreishtat@chicagotribune.com
