Southwest Airlines flight delays leaves passengers stranded at Pittsburgh International Airport

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — It is the least great time of the yr to be stranded within the airport.

1000’s of flights throughout the nation have been canceled, and lots of of them had been run by Southwest Airways. KDKA-TV discovered vacationers at Pittsburgh Worldwide Airport on Monday who had been all packed up with no place to go.

“You may’t discover something out on the web site,” Melissa Thompson stated. “You must wait six hours in line. It is simply very irritating.”

Christmas could be within the rearview mirror, however for Thompson, who is meant to be in Tampa, the airport remains to be very a lot in plain view.

“Nothing’s posted, nobody is aware of what is going on on,” stated Thompson, who has been caught in Pittsburgh for 3 days. 

She’s one of many hundreds nationwide who’re caught up in flight disruptions with Southwest Airways. CBS Information stated the airline canceled two-thirds of its flights Monday, in line with Flight Conscious. Greater than 2,700 flights had been canceled and 700 had been delayed, all attributable to this weekend’s winter storm.

“Attempting to get again to Mississippi, flights been canceled, no notification till we had been right here,” Eunice Williams stated.

Passengers informed KDKA-TV that they waited in line for hours on the airport to get solutions from Southwest. Others who referred to as had been met with jammed cellphone strains.

The airline informed CBS Information that it apologizes to clients and blamed the climate, stating many airports with Southwest flights had been impacted by the storm.

Southwest additionally stated it was totally staffed forward of the vacation and pointed to an absence of upgraded expertise and instruments to fight these points once they come up.

On Monday evening, the U.S. Division of Transportation blasted the airline on social media. It posted on Twitter saying, “USDOT is anxious by Southwest’s unacceptable charge of cancellations and delays & stories of lack of immediate customer support. The Division will look at whether or not cancellations had been controllable and if Southwest is complying with its customer support plan.”