More than 2,500 Southwest Airline flights across the United States Wednesday have been canceled, including 203 scheduled at Baltimore/Washington International Airport in what a Biden administration official called a “meltdown” of the airline's system.
Southwest has been affected more than any other airline by last week's massive winter storm. Of the nearly 2,800 flights within, into or out of the United States that had been canceled Wednesday, over 2,500 of them are Southwest. The airline said it would operate roughly a third of its schedule over the next several days.
According to FlightAware, out of 205 flights canceled Wednesday at BWI Airport, 203 of them are Southwest flights and the other two are Spirit Airlines.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told CNN he spoke to Southwest CEO Bob Jordan on Tuesday about the thousands of flights that have been canceled this week with no indication of when passengers can rebook.
âTheir system really has completely melted down,â Buttigieg told CNN. âI made clear that our department will be holding them accountable for their responsibilities to customers, both to get them through this situation and to make sure that this canât happen again.â