While Santa Barbara didn’t get the extreme winter weather that much of the rest of the country did over the holiday weekend, flight cancellations and delays — particularly of Southwest Airlines flights — are still affecting the Santa Barbara Airport.
According to an article from the Los Angeles Times, more than 3,000 flights were canceled across the United States on Tuesday, 85% of which were for Southwest.
While Southwest blames inclement weather, several employees and experts in the aviation industry are citing “the company’s outdated technology and vulnerable operations” for the significant amount of cancellations and delays.
“[The U.S. Department of Transportation] is concerned by Southwest’s unacceptable rate of cancellations and delays and reports of lack of prompt customer service,” the department said in a Twitter post Monday. “The department will examine whether cancellations were controllable and if Southwest is complying with its customer service plan.”
According to the Santa Barbara Airport’s real-time arrivals and departures page, there were at least five cancellations into and out of SBA on Tuesday — all of which for Southwest flights — and at least three canceled arrivals and three canceled departures of Southwest flights on Wednesday.
Additionally, all of Southwest’s flights in and out of the Santa Barbara Airport on Wednesday were either canceled or delayed, even those flying within California where the winter storm didn’t reach.
Several people are now dealing with the cancellations and figuring out how to get to their destinations.
One person told Noozhawk that their flight from Santa Barbara to Oakland was canceled and she now has to have someone drive her to the Bay Area.
“I wouldn’t be able to catch a flight until New Year’s Eve, and my options were to do a seven-hour route through Vegas or wait until 6 p.m. to leave out of Santa Barbara to get to the Bay by 7 p.m.,” traveler Diamonne Mitchell said. “I’m supposed to drive up to Tahoe on New Year’s morning to beat the weather and we have an Airbnb — nonrefundable — so it’s a lot of impact.”
In a statement that Southwest Airlines released Monday, it said its “heartfelt apologies for this are just beginning” and that the airline will be operating at a reduced schedule over the next several days.
“As we continue the work to recover our operation, we have made the decision to continue operating a reduced schedule by flying roughly one-third of our schedule for the next several days,” the statement said. “On the other side of this, we’ll work to make things right for those we’ve let down, including our employees.”
Meanwhile, Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell, chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, announced that the committee also will be investigating the cause of Southwest’s cancellations.
“The problems at Southwest Airlines over the last several days go beyond weather,” Cantwell said in a statement Tuesday. “The committee will be looking into the causes of these disruptions and its impacts to consumers. Many airlines fail to adequately communicate with consumers during flight cancellations. Consumers deserve strong protections, including an updated consumer refund rule.”