Southwest cancels more than 2,800 flights in a 'full-blown meltdown

Updated December 26, 20229:01 PM ET（Eastern time）

ASHLEY AHN

Southwest Airlines canceled at least 70% of its flights on Monday. In this file photo, travelers wait to check in at the Southwest ticketing counter at Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport last year.

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

A historic winter storm has tangled holiday travel and brought dangerous conditions to a big chunk of the United States, but no airline has struggled more to navigate the Christmas holiday rush than Southwest Airlines.

一场历史性的冬季暴雪,使美国处于厚雪危机，假期出行乱作一团。但没有哪家航空公司比西南航空更急于应对圣诞假期的飞行高峰期。

Southwest canceled more than 2,870 flights by 8:25 p.m. ET Monday — at least 70% of its schedule for the day, according to flight tracker FlightAware. The disruptions add to chaos that has left people stranded at airports across the country, many of them with little idea of when they can get home or where their bags are.

根据航班追踪公司FlightAware的数据，截至美国东部时间周一晚上8点25分，西南航空被迫取消了2870多个航班，至少占当天航班计划的70%。这次中断加剧了混乱的场面，那些被迫滞留在全国各地机场的旅客，他们中许多人根本不知道什么时候可以回家，也不知道自己的行李在哪里。

The number of canceled flights for Southwest is more than 10 times higher than for Delta, which had the second-most cancelations by a U.S. airline with 265 flights called off. Other airlines have also ordered large-scale cancellations in the past week.

西南航空取消航班数量是达美航空的10多倍，而达美航空是美国取消航班数量第二大的航空公司，有265个航班。在之后的一周,其他航空公司也大规模的取消航班订单。

Southwest says its crew scheduling process is partly to blame

西南航空表示部分原因归结于机组人员调度流程

Southwest spokesperson Chris Perry told NPR the airline's disruptions are a result of the winter storm's lingering effects, adding that it hopes to "stabilize and improve its operation" with more favorable weather conditions.

西南航空发言人克里斯·佩里对NPR表示，航班中断是冬季风暴持续影响的结果，并补充道，如果天气条件有所改善，航班将有希望稳定并加大运行。

Other issues that have exacerbated the airline's struggle to accommodate the holiday rush include problems with "connecting flight crews to their schedules," Perry said. That issue has made it difficult for employees to access crew scheduling services and get reassignments.

佩里说，其他的问题也加剧了航空公司,在应对假期高峰期方面的困难，包括“对接机组人员的个人日程”的问题。这个问题使得员工很难进入机组调度服务并获得重新分配。

Kyle Potter, executive editor of Thrifty Traveler, called it an incredibly complex task for an airline with a network as vast as Southwest's to coordinate staffing and scheduling, particularly after weather delays.

Thrifty Traveler 的执行编辑凯尔·波特（Kyle Potter）称，航线的安排是一个极其复杂的任务,尤其在用一个和西南航空一样庞大的网络去协调人员配置和日程安排且在天气延误之后。

But with many areas seeing clear skies on Monday, the airline would seem to have few obvious reasons to cancel so many flights. Potter calls it a "full-blown meltdown."

但在周一，随着多地区晴空万里，航空公司似乎没有什么明显的理由取消这么多航班。波特称之为“全面崩溃”

"This is really as bad as it gets for an airline," Potter said. "We've seen this again and again over the course of the last year or so, when airlines really just struggle especially after a storm, but there's pretty clear skies across the country."

波特说：“这对一家航空公司来说已经是最糟的了。在过去一年左右的时间里，我们一次又一次看到了这种情况，尤其是在风暴过后，航空公司真的很挣扎，但全国各地的天空都很晴朗。

For Southwest, the situation started unraveling before the Christmas weekend. To have extensive cancellations continue on Monday, Potter said, "is a clear, clear sign something has gone horribly wrong

对于西南航空来说，圣诞节周末之前，情况开始失控。波特说，周一仍有大量的订单取消，“这是一个明显的、明确的迹象，表明一些事情已经出现了严重的问题。

Holiday travelers see their plans upended

假期的旅行者眼睁睁看着他们的计划被推翻

From Houston, Texas, and Tampa, Fla., to Cleveland, Ohio, and Denver, Colo., passengers are sharing photos and video of overwhelmed baggage claim areas and long lines at reservation counters. At Southwest, the customer service phone line's hold times averaged more than two hours, sometimes reaching four hours, according to Colorado Public Radio.

从德克萨斯州的休斯顿和佛罗里达州的坦帕，到俄亥俄州的克利夫兰和科罗拉多州的丹佛，乘客们正在分享行李领取区不堪重负的照片和视频，及预订柜台排长队的情况。据科罗拉多公共广播电台报道，在西南地区，客户服务电话线的等待时间平均超过两小时，有时达到四小时。

"I'm okay with these travel situations and fly on by myself when it's just me, but when my one-year-old has to suffer through it because of ineptitude and mismanagement, that becomes personal," Southwest passenger Joshua Caudle, who said he was unsure when they would be able to leave Denver, said on Denver7 News. "I'm never going to do this with that company again."

西南航空公司的乘客乔舒亚·考德尔（Joshua Caudle）在丹佛7新闻频道（Denver7 News）上表示，“在只有我一个人的时候,独自飞行时，我还可以应对这些旅行和飞行状况，但当我一岁的孩子因为无能和管理不善而不得不忍受这种情况时，这就成为了个人的麻烦,我不确定能不能离开丹佛，我绝不会再一次和这个航空公司合作。

A Southwest passenger who says she was attempting to fly from Missouri to Denver said she missed spending Christmas with her family after several delays and cancellations to flights out of the Kansas City International Airport. Despite her being grounded, her luggage was sent to Denver without her, she wrote on Twitter.

一名西南航空公司的乘客表示，她正试图从密苏里州飞往丹佛。她说，在堪萨斯城国际机场的航班多次延误和取消后，她错过了与家人共度圣诞节。她在推特上写道，尽管她被禁飞，但她的行李还是被送到了丹佛。

Airlines have been hit with renewed demand

航空公司已经受到更新需要的打击

Airlines have been struggling to bounce back after losing tens of billions of dollars during the pandemic's worst months. Staffing shortages have plagued airlines as they try to accommodate Americans' return to air travel. And Southwest has not been the only airline to falter under the demand.

航空公司在疫情最严重的几个月损失了数百亿美元后，一直在努力恢复。人员短缺困扰着航空公司，因为他们试图满足美国人返回的需求。西南航空并不是唯一一家在需求面前步履蹒跚的航空公司。

Thousands of Delta pilots picketed at major airports this summer, calling for higher pay and highlighting staff concerns as passengers faced flight cancellations during the Fourth of July holiday rush. Last month, Delta pilots voted to authorize a strike after negotiations for a new contract were paused.

今年夏天，数千名达美飞行员在各大机场举行抗议，呼吁提高工资，并强调了员工的精神压力，因为在7月4日假期高峰期间，乘客面临航班取消。上个月，在新合同谈判暂停后，达美飞行员投票批准罢工

"Every airline across the country, Southwest included, got really small at the start of the pandemic when travel basically fell off a cliff, and they have struggled as travel has rebounded to grow back up to 100% and they're still not there," Potter said.

包括西南地区在内，全国各地的每家航空公司在疫情开始时都没做好准备，旅行基本上跌入了悬崖，但他们一直在努力去恢复到100%，但现在仍然没有实现，”波特说。

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Baggage Claim Areas

 means those areas of the Terminal designated for delivery of in- bound baggage to arriving passengers and also those areas of the enclosed baggage road designated for delivery of baggage from the aircraft into the Terminal

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:used to say that nothing better is possible or available