After week of flight cancellations, Southwest travel to get back on schedule Friday
After thousands of flights have been canceled across the country in the last week, Southwest said it expects to return to a mostly normal schedule Friday.
Southwest canceled hundreds of flights going into and out of Kansas City International Airport this week, including 80 flights Thursday, according to data from Flight Aware. For Friday, no Southwest cancellations have been announced at KCI as of midday Thursday.
In a statement Thursday, the airline apologized for the travel disruptions caused by last week’s winter storm, which led to widespread flight cancellations and strains on Southwest’s scheduling system and operations.
“We are encouraged by the progress we’ve made to realign Crew, their schedules, and our fleet,” Southwest wrote. “With another holiday weekend full of important connections for our valued Customers and Employees, we are eager to return to a state of normalcy.”
The U.S. Department of Transportation announced Monday night that it would investigate the cancellations and whether or not Southwest acted in line with its customer service policy. The department is also asking customers who experienced difficulties with the airline to file a complaint, if necessary.
For passengers whose flights were canceled, The Star created a guide to help you navigate rebooking, refunds, lost luggage and other issues.
Southwest has created a form for customers with unused flights to request reimbursements at southwest.com/traveldisruption. The link also has information for customers looking to get refunds on hotels, food and other expenses created by travel issues, as well as links for rebooking flights.
Southwest said it has moved unclaimed baggage out of airports and into larger areas like cargo facilities in some cities, including Kansas City.
Customers can visit southwest.com/baginfo to create a baggage report, which will include preferences for where they would like their luggage to be shipped.
