The likelihood today this week of canceled or delayed Southwest Hawaii flights is very strong and getting worse. This crisis came about due to the massive storms that ripped across the mainland. The problems appear to be getting worse even as other airlines are recovering somewhat.
FlightAware indicated that nationally, Southwest had canceled 66% of all its flights today (2,700), which could even go higher before the day’s end. Even yesterday, only about 10% of Southwest flights operated normally. By comparison nationally, Delta sits at 41%, United at 46%, and Alaska at 56%, total canceled and delayed flights.
Following severe weather issues, getting planes and people back on schedule is critical. Others have also pointed to Southwest’s unique point to point system of decentralized flights as adding to the current challenges and complexity.
Southwest CEO Bob Jordan just said they plan to dramatically reduce their entire systemwide flight schedule for the next several days in order to get things running normally again.
Those traveling to Hawaii on Southwest via Phoenix should also be aware that over 90% of those flights have been canceled. SW just said that they can’t rebook anyone there for 4 days and are asking that people not come to the airport.
69% of Southwest Honolulu flights were delayed/canceled Sunday.
Southwest canceled or delayed 69% of all flights into or out of Honolulu yesterday. By the numbers, 18 flights were canceled, and 48 were delayed. By comparison, the next worst performance was Hawaiian Airlines which canceled 1% of flights and suffered 32% delayed. That meant that three flights were canceled and 57 were delayed.
73% of Southwest Maui flights were delayed/canceled Sunday.
Southwest canceled 21% of all flights into or out of Maui yesterday. By the numbers, 12 flights were canceled, and 20 were delayed. By comparison, the next worst performance at Maui was Alaska Airlines, which canceled 6 flights and had 6 more delayed. That represented 72% of all Alaska flights to and from Maui that were either canceled or delayed.
Today’s Hawaii flight cancelations and delays. It’s too early to know how today will pan out, but it appears to be getting worse. So far this morning, here’s the data from Honolulu and Maui:
64% of Southwest Honolulu flights were delayed/canceled so far today.
Second, worst is Alaska Airlines, which has had 35% of flights to and from Honolulu either canceled or delayed today.
77% of Southwest Maui flights were delayed/canceled so far today.
The second worst is Alaska, with 44% delayed or canceled.
Did you get caught in delayed or canceled flights?
Our flight was canceled 4 times, two times in Maui and two times in Oakland which we had for our connecting flight. Most got canceled after the 2 hour mark. We almost had a 5th canceled but we decided to just to get ride and drive home and canceled the 5th flight. It eventually got canceled 8 hours later so we are glad we didn’t stick to that flight and got home 2 1/2 days later from the start of our first flight. Maui at least got us a hotel. Oakland told us we were out of luck and we had to sleep in the airport. They gave no compensation in Oakland which they said was due to the weather. Note that it was a flight to Oakland to Los Angeles. The weather was fine. They blamed it on the other flights.
We are also still waiting for our checkin luggage. They found one and will be FedExing it to our home. They are still trying to locate our other two pieces of luggage.
Interesting, but scary, numbers. The one thing I couldn’t see was any insight into why Southwest is faring so much worse than their competitors. Any ideas?
One thought Ben, given their route structure with so many short to medium length flights throughout the US they were particularly exposed to the massive weather problems the Continental U.S just experienced. The domino effect of mainland based airlines route systems effect the flights they operate to Hawaii. It’s probably why, by and large Hawaiian has a far more reliable record serving Hawaii, all their flights either originate or end in Hawaii…although you wouldn’t think that the last few weeks!
Also, much of what’s effecting all airlines is staffing. Pilots at all airlines took lucrative early retirement packages when Covid first hit and training new ones takes a long time. Even more so it seems all airlines are scrambling to hire enough ground handling staff. You can make a case that the people that have to deal face to face with all manor of people as well as those working on the ramp have a very tough job, are under appreciated and underpaid. The traveling public wants everything to work perfectly and on time but perhaps are unwilling to pay for the service when they buy a ticket.
And, this is why you travel to the islands during the fall, spring and summer. Avoid the mess that is winter on the mainland with those nasty polar vortexes and massive arctic blasts and those fancy new named winter storms that are becoming more popular lately.
No this is why you never, ever fly southwest
And Southwest used to have great service. Whatever they did to that service model sure ruined that experience. We never look at them as an option now.