After canceling 8250 flights nationwide, Southwest canceled 70 flights coming out of Milwaukee’s General Mitchell International airport this June. The airline continues to remain the dominant market share leader at Mitchell International.
Like many other airlines, Southwest has suffered the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and its tumultuous recovery. The Milwaukee Business Journal reports that the airline has continually flexed its flight schedule throughout the pandemic to balance its network, operation and staffing plan based on latest guidance on capacity.
Host of Fox World’s Travel show, Rose Gray, said Southwest isn’t alone and this could have been any airline. “It’s a part of the great resignation,” Gray said “A lot of those pilots took an early retirement, a lot of flight attendants saw what their brothers and sisters in arms were dealing with on airlines, with the masks and the controversies and all those kinds of things, and they said ‘I don’t need this aggravation I can find something else to do.'”
Southwest said they are reaching out to some customers with different routings, departure times or flight numbers cooperatively with the changes. With some airlines, when a cancellation occurs, tickets can be transferred from airline to airline. Unfortunately for Southwest flyers, the airline is considered to be a low cost carrier, similar to Jet Blue, meaning they will not accept tickets from other airlines and vice versa if a cancellation occurs.
For travelers concerned about flight changes or cancellations, Gray recommends continually checking flight statuses and being more proactive in looking for updates. The airlines fully revised Summer schedule is expected to be published this week.
