Southwest Airlines disruption leaves customers stranded, call centers

(CNN) — Last week’s winter weather travel mess is lingering like a vicious hangover into this week — and the headaches are migraine-proportioned for Southwest Airlines, its CEO Bob Jordan and most of all its frustrated passengers on Monday.

But Southwest accounts for a whopping share of those. None of the other US carriers have canceled nearly as many flights or as much of their schedule as Southwest.

The Dallas-based airline had canceled roughly two-thirds of its flights — more than 2,700 total — as of 5:20 p.m. Monday, according to FlightAware.

At one point, it canceled around 300 flights in the span of a half hour Monday afternoon.

CEO: ‘A lot of issues in the operation’

On Christmas night, ahead of Monday’s meltdown, Jordan told employees the airline has “a lot of issues in the operation right now.”

CNN was provided a transcript of the message to Southwest employees by an aviation source.

Jordan told employees, “Part of what we’re suffering is a lack of tools. We’ve talked an awful lot about modernizing the operation, and the need to do that.

On social media, customers are complaining loudly about long lines to speak with representatives, problems with lost bags and excessive wait times or busy signals on the airline’s customer service telephone lines.

Customers wait to rebook their Southwest Airlines flight at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on Monday.

CNN

CNN’s Carlos Suarez spoke with frustrated passengers in line at the Southwest ticket counter at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on Monday.

He’s reportedthat about 150 customers were waiting in a long line at one point to rebook, with the line snaking around the back of the ticket counter.

‘Disruptions across our network’

Southwest responded to the massive cancellations in an emailed statement Monday afternoon:

“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,” the statement read.

“We’re working with Safety at the forefront to urgently address wide-scale disruption. … On the other side of this, we’ll work to make things right for those we’ve let down, including our Employees.”

In an earlier statement to CNN on Monday, Southwest Airlines said it is “experiencing disruptions across our network as a result of (the winter storm’s) lingering effects on the totality of our operation.”

Some of the airports seeing the biggest issues are Denver, Las Vegas, Chicago Midway, Baltimore/Washington, Dallas Love Field and Phoenix Sky Harbor.

Customers encountered long lines at Southwest counters on Monday at Raleigh-Durham International Airport.

WRAL

Calls made by CNN to Southwest’s customer service did not go through, so customers couldn’t even get…