In the event you dwell in California, you most likely know that Southwest Airways dominates air journey right here.

Southwest is the state’s busiest airline, and extra of its flights depart from California than from every other state within the nation, together with Texas, the place the corporate started. Southwest is the highest airline at seven of California’s 10 busiest airports, accounting for greater than half of all air visitors on the airports in Oakland, Sacramento, San Jose, Burbank and Lengthy Seaside.

“Southwest is sort of the unofficial airline of California,” Henry Harteveldt, an airways analyst for Environment Analysis Group, instructed my colleague Shawn Hubler after the airline’s flight cancellations throughout the holidays left passengers stranded throughout the nation.

By Friday, the airline seemed to be again on observe. However as Shawn and I not too long ago wrote, Southwest’s extremely publicized woes have rattled the boldness of vacationers and commuters who depend on the airline to shuttle between Northern and Southern California. Regardless of delicate winter climate, California’s medium-size airports had a few of the worst cancellation charges within the nation final week as a result of Southwest accounts for a lot of their visitors.

Going ahead, “simply because the flights are working, doesn’t imply the purchasers will probably be there,” Harteveldt, who is predicated in San Francisco, mentioned. “I feel this occasion has weakened belief amongst vacationers and accomplished substantial injury to Southwest’s model.”

Gemma Evans, a journalist who lives in San Mateo, mentioned she was annoyed by Southwest’s last-minute cancellation of her flight final week to San Francisco Worldwide Airport from Burbank. For hours, Southwest’s flight standing net web page conflicted with its cellphone app, which had completely different data from the textual content alerts she acquired.

As soon as Evans and her husband confirmed that their flight was canceled, they drove a rental automobile for eight hours by way of a rainstorm, with their 11-month-old within the again seat, to get dwelling to the Bay Space.

“Not getting solutions from them after we wanted them has left us with a bitter style in our mouth,” Evans, 38, mentioned. “I feel sooner or later we’ll prioritize different airways.”

Southwest began in 1967 as a strategy to ferry passengers between Texas cities, impressed by California’s now-defunct Pacific Southwest Airways, a pioneer of intrastate low cost air journey. Southwest has grown steadily and has change into one of many nation’s 4 largest airways, serving routes throughout the nation. The airline can be a necessary mode of transportation for Californians who have to journey the size of the state for work or faculty or to go to kinfolk.

Two-thirds of all seats on the market on flights inside California are on Southwest flights, based on Mike Arnot, a spokesman for Cirium, an aviation analytics firm. (United is a really distant second with 13 %.)

California state legislators depend on Southwest to get to Sacramento from their districts, which is especially vital this week with the brand new legislative session starting on Wednesday. “The Legislature is completely depending on Southwest functioning,” mentioned Tom Umberg, a Democratic state senator who has commuted to the Capitol from Orange County for years.

Casey Hultin, 33, a touring trial lawyer who lives in Oakland, usually takes Southwest flights about twice per week to get to courts in Southern California. The weekday planes are stuffed with intra-California commuters like her, she mentioned, as a result of no different airline gives the identical flexibility or frequency of flights throughout the state.

Even after the meltdown final week — one in every of her personal flights was canceled — she’s going to stay to Southwest, Hultin instructed me. “That is nonetheless, by far, the best choice.”

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Meet Oakland’s new mayor, probably the most outstanding Hmong American politician within the nation.

What you get

For $4 million: A Cape Cod-style dwelling in San Marino, a contemporary farmhouse in Kenwood or a up to date showplace in El Dorado Hills.

What we’re consuming

These tender cookies are a chic teatime snack.

The place we’re touring

Right now’s tip comes from Marion Becker, who lives in Davis:

“The arboretum on the U.C. Davis campus gives an exquisite, free and academic stroll for anybody, together with those that depend on a wheelchair. Putah Creek meanders by way of the house with many arched footbridges spanning it. There are sections of the arboretum depicting varied climates within the state with native crops from completely different areas. At sure instances of the yr when showy timber or crops are in bloom, the house will get crowded however it’s good to know it’s being appreciated.”

Inform us about your favourite locations to go to in California. E mail your options to CAtoday@nytimes.com. We’ll be sharing extra in upcoming editions of the publication.

Inform us

Do you have got resolutions for the brand new yr? E mail us at CAtoday@nytimes.com.

And earlier than you go, some excellent news

The lights got here down over the weekend in one in every of California’s finest embellished vacation neighborhoods, however not earlier than hundreds of individuals came visiting.

The 41 households within the Wakefield Courtroom neighborhood in Santa Clarita go all out for Christmas annually, turning their blocks right into a glowing winter wonderland.

The custom began after the Northridge earthquake in 1994, when neighbors acquired to know each other higher and commenced stringing up Christmas lights between their homes.

“It simply expanded from that,” Shaun Denes, a Wakefield resident, instructed KTLA. “The lights between every home present the bond between neighbors.”

With so many guests coming to Wakefield from throughout Southern California, one other resident, Mark Younger, started in 1996 to ask for donations to learn a nonprofit group that helps unhoused folks in Santa Clarita. “Yearly we elevate wherever from $2,000 to $12,000 in that field from the oldsters strolling by,” Younger instructed KTLA.

Thanks for studying. I’ll be again tomorrow. — Soumya

P.S. Right here’s at this time’s Mini Crossword.

Briana Scalia and Steven Moity contributed to California Right now. You possibly can attain the staff at CAtoday@nytimes.com.

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