A series of severe rain storms accompanied by high winds struck Southern California and Arizona late last month. Bad weather conditions particularly impacted Southwest Airlines (WN) on January 21, resulting in the cancellation of 470 flights by the low fare carrier, and affected approximate 60,000 passengers.
While many flights by the airline's fleet of 547 Boeing 737 aircraft were grounded, stations hardest hit were Phoenix (PHX) and San Diego (SAN) with 104 and 76 cancellations respectively. Also impacted were Las Vegas (LAS) with 34 scrubbed flights, Sacramento (SMF) with 27, and Burbank (BUR) with 25. In all, about 45 airports had cancellations by Southwest Airlines that day. Sporadic flights that did operate were late by as much as two hours. Many other carriers continued to fly on an almost normal schedule.
CAPTIONS: (ABOVE LEFT) Jerry Bridges paddles an inflatable kayak down a flooded section of Bennett Aveue in Long Beach, Calif., Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2010. The second in a series of powerful storms roared into Southern California, bringing heavy rains and winds that smashed windows, submerged cars and flipped an SUV along a stretch of coastline. (AP Photo/Scott Smeltzer); (BELOW RIGHT TOP) Water from a storm runs unto highway 17 in Los Gatos, Calif., Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2010. Storms continue to pound California Tuesday, causing evacuations, flooding, school and road closures. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez); (BELOW LEFT) A lone plane takes off, while these Southwest Airlines planes were grounded as the airline canceled all flights due to high winds and storms at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport Thursday, Jan. 21, 2010, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin); (BELOW RIGHT BOTTOM) Southwest Airlines customer service agent Marcie Whalen, right, helps Megan Makarewicz, of Detroit, rebook a flight for tomorrow, as the airline canceled all flights due to high winds and storms at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport Thursday, Jan. 21, 2010, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
A slide show follows this article showing storm impact photos.
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To better understand the airline's decision to halt so many flights, we contacted Southwest's spokesperson Brad Hawkins. Results of that interview are presented here.
Q. What assistance was given to travelers holding confirmed reservations on Southwest?
"Our Customers were offered our standard accommodation for this type of scenario, ahead of or during widespread cancellations, of a 14-day window in which to rebook themselves and travel on Southwest."
Q. Why were your 737 aircraft grounded by weather conditions, while other carriers continued their operations?
"Safety and the comfort of passengers is the top-line summary of yet another distinction in Southwest’s way of doing business. With the number of daily flights, currently scheduled at 3,000, and our high-frequency, point-to-point service coupled with our strides in the last few years to utilize technology to notify, re-accommodate our customers through flight status messaging, and re-booking avenues on southwest.com, it just makes the most sense to give our customers the most information we can, instead of them sitting in an airport or, worse yet, on an airplane and going nowhere!"
Q. Would you care to make any other comments on this matter, Mr. Hawkins?
"Yes. The fluid weather situation that day approached and exceeded our comfort level at a number
of our airports and, in such a case, there’s no question as to whether we suspend operations. Now, we take into account when we expect conditions to improve; if that’s some hours out, why waste our Customers time and overload the airports when we can say, with some predictability, that we will be able to safely operate a certain number of hours from now. In the case of San Diego (SAN) that day, I recall that we had a decision time of 4:00 p.m., at which point it still did not improve."
Q. Thank you for this information and for the spread sheet data you provided showing station by station details.
Weather Underground also gave historical facts. In Phoenix on January 21, maximum wind speed was 43 miles an hours, with gusts measured at 55 miles an hour. San Diego had maximum winds clocked at 35 mph, with gusts to 47 mph.
In light of the recent tragic events on January 25 in Lebanon, in which an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737-800 crashed shortly after taking off from Beirut in a severe thunderstorm, the decision by Southwest Airlines to stress passenger safety and comfort seems even more rational.
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Comments
I flew on Southwest during the storm in So. California. Mine was one of the few flights that didn't get canceled. I flew out of Ontario to San Jose. The reason it wasn't canceled, I was told, that the connecting flight from San Jose had been operational. And indeed, when we got to San Jose, there seemed to be a window of calm weather. But I saw the board with all the canceled flights and wondered if I was lucky or not that mine wasn't. Everything, however, went very smoothly on the flight with very few bumps on the way. However, a passenger next to me told me he hadn't been so lucky flying out of San Diego that morning. So I guess we were lucky after all.
Great article and photos Joel!
Better to be on the safe side.
It's great that you are able to get direct information from Southwest Airlines. They seem to be very responsive to staying in touch with their consumers...
Road photo pretty scary!
I was one of the Southwest passengers affected by these flight disruptions. The Southwest's rep gave a very clear and understandable reason for the problem...safety first. Great article, Joel.
Cheers..
Bad weather causes problems for everyone involved. Glad that Southwest Airlines is acting responsively. Great photos and article,Joel.
Points to Southwest for being so open about their decision-making process... and to you, too, for asking good questions!
What an incredibly professional article about a situation that thousands of travelers experience daily. When California gets winter storms they really get socked with powerful punches. Excellent and thorough reporting by someone who's in the know.
Wow, Joel, are you typing these from a raft! I hope all is safe down there. Jeeze.
Better safe than sorry. This must have been very frustrating for passengers though.
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