Holiday travel chaos for some at Tampa International Airport
More than 2,800 US flights were canceled early Tuesday morning. That’s after about 4,400 were canceled on Monday.
This not only resulted in several delays in Tampa, but at least 24 Southwest Airlines flights were canceled early Tuesday morning.
So some passengers are stuck at the airport while trying to rebook their flight. Also, the baggage area in the southwest has more than 1,000 bags piled up and missing.
Many of the bags belong to people who made it to Tampa but never made it.
According to CNN, the Dallas-based airline said the delays and cancellations were due to “disruptions across our network as a result of[the winter storm]’s lingering impact on our overall operations.”
The CEO of Southwest Airlines said Monday that travelers should expect more delays in just over a third of its flights heading into Wednesday and Thursday, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The Ministry of Transport is now involved.
The agency tweeted late last night that it was concerned about the Southwest’s unacceptable cancellation rate and lack of customer service.
They said they will be checking to see if Southwest is compliant with their customer service plan.
However, there is a long line on Tuesday mornings.
Michigan’s Carolyn Burke said the holidays were chaotic as some of her family couldn’t make it to Tampa but their bags arrived.
She’s tasked with going through a pile of luggage early on Tuesday to find her daughter’s suitcase, which has been missing since before Christmas.
“We understand weather delays,” Burke said. “But then when she arrived in Denver and the connection failed, they rescheduled her and her bag didn’t follow. When I got back they said they wouldn’t deliver the bag to her.They don’t know where they are.”The bag is there and they will be useless…they scanned it…so they I know it’s somewhere in this area… but there must be a thousand bags here. ”
Southwest Airlines released a partial statement as follows:
“Due to consecutive days of extreme winter weather across our network, the ongoing challenges are impacting our customers and employees in unacceptable and significant ways. Apologizing is just the beginning.
“We are on the front lines of safety and have urgently dealt with the mass disruption by rebalancing our airlines, redeploying our crews and aircraft, and will eventually travel with us. We are committed to providing the best possible service to all of our customers.”