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Southwest Airlines flight cancelations pile up at Atlanta airport

By FOX 5 Atlanta Digital Team
Updated  December 28, 2022 5:19pm EST
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport
FOX 5 Atlanta

Travelers stranded as flights continue to be canceled, delayed

Travelers passing through Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport are dealing with headaches. Around 125 flights were canceled on Wednesday and a majority of those cancelations are Southwest flights.

ATLANTA - Hundreds of bags sit unclaimed at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport while more passengers play the waiting game trying to deal with Southwest Airlines' flight cancelations and delays 

A day after most U.S. airlines had recovered from the winter storm, Southwest called off about 2,600 more flights on the East Coast by late afternoon. Those flights accounted for more than 80% of the 3,000 trips that got canceled nationwide Tuesday, according to tracking service FlightAware.

And the chaos seemed certain to continue. The airline also scrubbed 2,500 flights for Wednesday and nearly 1,400 for Thursday as it tried to restore order to its mangled schedule.

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Passengers at Atlanta airport frustrated over Southwest cancelations

Southwest scrubbed 2,500 flights for Wednesday and nearly 1,400 for Thursday as the airline tried to restore order to its mangled schedule. At Hartsfield-Jackson, hundreds of bags sit unclaimed.

Some travelers who managed to make to Atlanta's airports arrived to find the baggage carousel jammed.

So they took matters into their own hands, pulling out the bags themselves and tossing them onto the conveyor belt. 

"You've got people that are still waiting on their bags that have been stuck in Vegas, and it's ridiculous," Southwest traveler Stefan Chastain said.

The airline's ticket counters are flooded with customers and hundreds of bags sit unclaimed at airports across the country.

"If I had to write a review it wouldn't be a good one," Chastain said.

Southwest blames the travel disaster on several factors including winter storm delays, aggressive flight scheduling, and outdated infrastructure.

Atlanta airport woes: Lost luggage, closed restrooms, canceled flights

Many customers at Hartsfield-Jackson are just going through the motions after days of delays, canceled flights, limited bathrooms and more.

After days of silence for the airline, CEO Bob Jordan issued a video apologizing to customers, saying that the company "have some real work to do in making this right."

"Our plan for the next few days is to fly a reduced schedule, and reposition our people and planes. And we're making headway, and we're optimistic to be back on track before next week," said Jordan, a 34-year Southwest veteran who became CEO in February. 

The news is little relief for the thousands who remain stuck trying to get to their final destination.

The airline is also now drawing unwanted attention from Washington.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who has criticized airlines for previous disruptions, said his agency would examine the causes of Southwest’s widespread cancellations and whether the airline was meeting its legal obligations to stranded customers.

"While we all understand that you can’t control the weather, this has clearly crossed the line from what is an uncontrollable weather situation to something that is the airline’s direct responsibility," Buttigieg told "NBC Nightly News." He said Southwest should at least pay cash refunds for canceled flights and cover stranded passengers’ hotel and meal costs.

Travel experts encourage anyone impacted to save all receipts including those for other flights, rental cars, hotel stays, and meals.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.