Southwest Cancels All Flights Out Of PHL Wednesday

PHILADELPHIA — After an extremely hectic travel weekend, Southwest Airlines continues to have scheduling issues in Philadelphia and across the nation. The airline has canceled all flights out of Philadelphia International Airport Wednesday, creating woes for numerous travelers.

According to FlightAware, 23 Southwest flights at the airport have been canceled for Wednesday.

Additionally, Southwest has already canceled 22 flights planned for Thursday, FlightAware reports. Twenty-one Southwest flights from the Philadelphia International Airport were canceled Tuesday.

The flight tracking website showed that there were more than 2,700 flights within, into or out of the United States that had been canceled Wednesday, a majority of which are operated by Southwest.

The airline's ongoing cancellations have prompted scrutiny from federal officials, with Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg saying his department would hold the airline accountable.

"This is an unacceptable situation," Buttigieg told CNN. "Their system really has completely melted down and our department will be holding them accountable … both to get them through this situation and to make sure this can’t happen again."

Southwest took to social media to address the flight cancelations Tuesday night.

"On the heels of wide-scale disruptions, we're working diligently to Safely recover our operation and accommodate displaced Customers and Crews," Southwest said. "We acknowledge this is unacceptable and sincerely apologize."

Southwest customers traveling through Jan. 2, 2023 can rebook in the original class of service or travel standby without paying additional charges, according to the airline. Travelers can learn more here.

Customers trying to reach the airline's call centers were experiencing long wait times.

"The weather across the country late last week and over the weekend was a challenge for all airlines, and PHL is still seeing the residual effects of the impact of that weather this week," an airport spokesperson told Patch in an email. "However, there have been fewer cancelations into and out of PHL the past few days, and we anticipate this will continue as the week goes on and weather is better here and across the country."

"We know the airlines have been working hard to accommodate passengers impacted by the weather delays and cancelations, and thank our passengers for their patience. We remind passengers of the importance of staying in touch with their airlines—download their apps, register for text and email alerts. Airlines provide the most up-to-date flight status information and will alert passengers if they have had to cancel or delay a flight. They will also provide information on what to do if a flight is cancelled."

With the airline saying it would operate roughly a third of its schedule over the next several days, more than 2,500 Southwest flights were canceled Wednesday, according to FlightAware.

The continued cancellations come following an even larger series of cancellations the day after Christmas. On Monday, 3,989 flights were canceled, 2,909 of which were Southwest flights. Flights departing smaller airports, such as Palm Springs International and Ontario International in Southern California were "hit or miss" with cancellations as the airline struggled to run roughly 30% of its fleet Tuesday morning.

The airline's woes come after a massive winter storm pummeled large parts of the country with heavy snowfall, high winds and bone-chilling temperatures. The storm knocked out power to millions and wreaked havoc on Americans' travel plans.