OMAHA -- Southwest Airlines continued to cancel flights Wednesday at Omaha’s Eppley Airfield.
Southwest canceled 20 arriving flights and 20 departing flights Wednesday at Eppley, the only cancellations at the airport. Southwest’s cancellations came after the airline canceled 20 arriving flights and 21 departing flights and 15 arriving flights and 20 departing flights
The canceled flights at Eppley came as part of 2,509 flights canceled by the airline across its network, according to FlightAware. The flights account for 62% of Southwest’s schedule.
Thursday looks to be more of the same. Steve McCoy, the chief information and development officer for the Omaha Airport Authority, said Wednesday afternoon that the airline already had canceled 19 arriving flights and 20 departing flights for Thursday. FlightAware showed that Southwest will cancel more than 2,300 flights overall Thursday, 58% of the airline’s schedule.
United flights to and from the Lincoln Airport were operating on schedule on Thursday.
The winter storm system that swept across the nation last week proved to be only the starting point for Southwest’s woes. The Dallas airline was undone by a combination of factors, including an antiquated crew-scheduling system and a network design that allows cancellations in one region to rapidly cascade throughout the country. Those weaknesses are not new — they helped cause a similar failure by Southwest in October 2021.
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Leaders of Southwest’s labor unions have warned for years that the airline’s crew-scheduling system, which dates to the 1990s, was inadequate, and the CEO acknowledged this week that the technology needs to be upgraded.
As passengers remained stranded, they also have been separated from their luggage. Bags have stacked up at Eppley and other airports across the country waiting to be claimed by passengers who might be in different cities.
In an email to the World-Herald, a Southwest spokeswoman where passengers can inquire about the status of their lost luggage: .
The spokeswoman added that customers can speak with a Southwest representative at a baggage service office in an airport where the airline operates or contact Southwest customer service. She added, however, that the volume of calls was “abnormally high.†She said Southwest is using “every available tool†to return luggage to customers, including sending bags on flights and using shipping companies.
The airline’s troubles have prompted an investigation by the federal government.
Southwest Airlines is the most-used passenger airline at Eppley. In 2022, as of November, 1,513,855 Eppley passengers flew on Southwest, according to statistics from the Omaha Airport Authority. That number accounts for 36.6% of all passengers.
This report includes material from the Associated Press.
Travelers’ luggage has stacked up at Omaha’s Eppley Airfield. The wave of flight cancellations by Southwest Airlines has left many passengers separated from their bags.