Few Southwest Flights Canceled Across The Southland Friday

LOS ANGELES, CA — Southwest Airlines vowed a return to normal today after canceling and delaying thousands of flights in the Southland all week, and, as of, 8 a.m., the company appeared to have stabilized its operations.

According to the flight-tracking site FlightAware.com, there were no Southwest flight cancellations at Los Angeles International Airport and only two delays as of 8 a.m. Similarly, there were no Southwest cancellations at Orange County's John Wayne Airport and just six delays.

At Hollywood Burbank Airport, there were no Southwest flights canceled and just four delays as of 8 a.m. At San Diego International Airport, there were no Southwest flight cancellations, but there were 20 delays Friday morning, affecting almost 10 percent of the airline's scheduled flights in San Diego.

The situation wasn't quite as clean at Long Beach Airport where Southwest had three cancellations and five delays Friday morning, according to FlightAware.com.

"We are encouraged by the progress we've made to realign crew, their schedules and our fleet," Southwest said in a statement Thursday while vowing "minimal disruptions" Friday.

"With another holiday weekend full of important connections for our valued customers and employees, we are eager to return to a state of normalcy. We know even our deepest apologies -- to our customers, to our employees and to all affected through this disruption -- only go so far."

Southwest officials said Thursday that the airline was operating roughly one-third of its schedule. In all, 2,364 Southwest flights were scrubbed Thursday -- about 58% of the carrier's schedule. Another 206 were delayed.

As of Thursday afternoon, a total of 53 outbound flights from LAX were canceled, most of them from Southwest, while 54 incoming flights were also scrubbed.

At Hollywood Burbank Airport, a total of 39 inbound and 39 outbound flights were scrubbed by Thursday afternoon. Long Beach Airport saw 59 cancellations, while John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana had 93 Southwest cancellations.

Southwest has set up a page at Southwest.com/traveldisruption for customers to submit refund and reimbursement requests for meals, hotel and alternate transportation, as well as to connect customers to their baggage.

"We have much work ahead of us, including investing in new solutions to manage wide-scale disruptions," the airline said. "We aim to serve our customers and employees with our legendary levels of Southwest hospitality and reliability again very soon."

Meanwhile, long lines greeted travelers at airports in Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego and Riverside counties, with anxious travelers looking for flights on other airlines.

Thousands of passengers and their luggage also remained in limbo in Southern California and across the nation as Southwest works to recover from a failure in its scheduling systems combined with a devastating winter storm.

The airline has been working to reset its systems and reposition its aircraft and flight crews, many of which were left out of position as the weather and computer failures combined to devastate Southwest's operations.

That led to mass cancellations of flights in Southern California and beyond -- an estimated 13,000 in total -- leaving many passengers stranded, unable to reach their destinations and often unable to even locate their checked luggage.

The airline previously issued an apology to stranded holiday travelers, stating that its operational challenges stem from last week's historic winter storm.

"With consecutive days of extreme winter weather across our network behind us, continuing challenges are impacting our customers and employees in a significant way that is unacceptable," according to the Southwest statement. "We're working with safety at the forefront to urgently address wide-scale disruption by rebalancing the airline and repositioning crews and our fleet ultimately to best serve all who plan to travel with us."

The airline added, "And our heartfelt apologies for this are just beginning."

"On the other side of this, we'll work to make things right for those we've let down, including our employees," the airline said.

Officials with the U.S. Department of Transportation issued a statement calling the Southwest situation "unacceptable."

"USDOT is concerned by Southwest's unacceptable rate of cancellations and delays and reports of lack of prompt customer service," the department stated. "The department will examine whether cancellations were controllable and if Southwest is complying with its customer service plan."

City News Service and Patch Staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report.