Southwest Airlines canceled over 1,000 flights over the weekend for what the airline said was due to weather and staffing shortages and the cancellations are continuing on Monday.
Southwest Airlines canceled over 1,000 flights over the weekend for what the airline said was due to weather and staffing shortages and the cancellations are continuing on Monday.
Bad weather, staffing shortages and on-air traffic control issues are the reasons for the cancellations, according to the airline.
At least 1,800 flights have been canceled and that number is continuing to grow. In total, three departing flights have been canceled so far at Bradley International Airport on Monday morning.
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"We literally were on the phone for two hours, waiting for an agent to call, waiting on an agent to call, they hung up on him, then I tried to call then they hung up on me twice," said Dawn Thompson, of Windsor.
Thompson is traveling to Las Vegas with some of her loved ones and said she ran into some issues before showing up at the airport overnight.
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"My nephew had the next flight out and he got a text at 12:30 tonight, that his flight is cancelled," Thompson said.
"Yeah, it’s frustrating because we had wanted to celebrate her birthday and my sister's birthday and so we thought we were going to get there at the same time and now he don’t get in there until tonight and has a three-hour layover in Baltimore,” she added.
The Thompson family aren't the only ones dealing with flight conflicts.
On Sunday, Southwest apologized for the situation and blamed the cancelations on staffing shortages, bad weather and on-air traffic control issues.
So far, at last 300 Southwest flights have been canceled on Monday, according to Flight Tracker Flight Aware.
At least three departing flights from Connecticut were canceled. They include two Baltimore flights and one Denver flight.
More than 1,800 flights have been canceled across the country since Friday.
“Got a text message at 2:25 this morning saying ‘Oh we cancelled your 6:05 flight,” said Elinor Froemsdorf, of Tampa, Florida. “I went online to rebook the flight and they had nothing available for today.”
In response to Southwest, the FAA sent a series of tweets, one of which reads, "no FAA air traffic staffing shortages have been reported since Friday."
The agency also stated flight delays and cancellations occurred for a few hours on Friday afternoon due to widespread severe weather, military training and limited staffing in one area of the Jacksonville en route center.
With many customers stranded, many are hoping to get to their destinations as soon as possible.
"All I could get was flights out of tomorrow and I can’t stay here one more day, so I had to book it on another airline for a whole bunch of money," Froemsdorf added.
If you have a flight with Southwest, you're encouraged to check your flight information to make sure it is on time.
