‘It was mayhem’: More than 100 flight cancellations at KCI strand Christmas travelers
Update: Southwest canceled hundreds more flights traveling into and out of Kansas City International Airport between Tuesday and Thursday. That story can be found here.
Andrew Lamparski spent part of his Christmas holiday sleeping at Kansas City International Airport, after multiple flight cancellations left him stranded on his way home to Dallas.
He was among thousands of Southwest customers whose flights were canceled across the country, which included over 100 flights traveling into or out of Kansas City International Airport between Christmas Day and Monday, according to data from Flight Aware.
As of about 2:40 p.m. Monday, 77 flights were canceled at KCI, and 70 of those were Southwest trips, according to Flight Aware. On Christmas Day, Flight Aware data showed 48 flights were canceled at KCI, and 41 of them were Southwest flights.
After visiting family in Chicago, Lamparski’s direct flight to Dallas was canceled. His next best option was to take a flight with a layover in Kansas City. But his connecting flight to Dallas was canceled, too. In the terminals at both airports, he said the main excuses for delays and cancellations were that planes didn’t have the number of flight attendants they needed or a pilot in order to take off.
After waiting two hours in line to talk with a representative, Lamparski ended up sleeping at the Kansas City airport, where he said no restaurants or concessions stands were open and the vending machine in the terminal was broken. A line formed outside of Starbucks about 45 minutes before it opened Monday morning.
Lamparski finally boarded a flight to Austin Monday morning, where he’ll land and take an hours-long bus ride to the Dallas airport to get his car.
“It’s just frustrating,” he said. “And the thing is, I understand the frustration can’t be directed at the staff here because they’re just as frustrated as we are. It’s all around not a great situation.”
He and other customers were offered $200 vouchers, Lamparski said.
In an email, a Southwest spokesperson said the airline is continuing to experience issues with operations following the winter storm that hit Kansas City and much of the rest of the nation last week. Because of the storm, flight crew may not be in the right locations to operate other scheduled flights, which has caused further delays and cancellations.
“With the weather now considerably more favorable, we continue work to stabilize and improve our operation,” the airline wrote.
“We are re-accommodating as many Customers as possible, based on available space, whose itineraries have been disrupted. Those whose flights have been canceled may request a full refund or receive a flight credit, which does not expire.”
No food and water? ‘It’s just nuts’
Lisa Cravens’ daughter, who visited from Los Angeles for the holiday, had her Southwest flight delayed about 10 hours Christmas Day, too. She could’ve expected the long delays because of the holiday and delays and cancellations earlier in the week, Cravens said, but she didn’t understand how the airport didn’t plan to have food for stranded passengers.
There was nothing to eat or drink in the terminal until people from the airline brought out pretzels and water from the plane, she said.
Joe McBride, a spokesman for Kansas City Aviation Department, said food concessions closed at regular hours over the holiday, but that 24/7 self-serve machines are available in pre- and post-security areas with food, snacks and drinks.
“Most of it couldn’t be helped,” Cravens said. “But not having the food and the water? It’s just nuts.”
Jane Hoyland of Leawood was returning to the Kansas City area with her family from a cruise in Fort Lauderdale. They spent about 36 hours navigating several flight cancellations and delays, waiting in hours-long lines in packed terminals to talk to representatives and sitting on airport floors. The family ended up flying from Fort Lauderdale to New Orleans to Dallas before making it to Kansas City.
When they arrived in Kansas City, Hoyland said the baggage claim area was packed with hundreds of pieces of luggage from canceled flights. Her husband’s bags didn’t make it there, and an Apple AirTag the family put in it showed it never left the terminal in Fort Lauderdale.
“It was chaos,” she said. “It was mayhem.”
Hoyland said she has tried to get in touch with Southwest about her husband’s luggage, but whenever she calls, she gets a busy signal. The family spent hundreds of dollars, she said, between a hotel room, new flights and food that they’ve tallied up and hope Southwest will reimburse.
Throughout their travel time, Hoyland said Southwest continued to say the flights were delayed or canceled because of the weather, but she didn’t understand how that was still the issue when the winter storm had ended days before.
“Don’t travel on Christmas Eve,” she said. “That’s my advice, and I will never do it again.”
This story was originally published December 26, 2022 at 3:00 PM.
