Southwest Airlines recovers after delays, cancelations on Christmas Eve
DALLAS - Flight cancelations are significantly lower this year compared to Christmas week last year, but for some Southwest Airlines travelers it was a close call and they almost didn't make it to Dallas for Christmas.
"I looked at other flights. They were canceled, canceled, canceled," said traveler Owen Lee.
Lee had the tall task of scrambling to save Christmas.
His family's Christmas morning flight from San Jose, California to Dallas was canceled on Christmas Eve.
"It was just crazy. It was all last night," said Grace Lee.
For the majority of passengers, Christmas Day was stress-free.
"Really smooth. Really great," said Cameron Mann from Milwaukee.
Traveler Jon Badie made it out of Chicago.
"No delays. No cancelations," Badie said.
Southwest Airlines canceled hundreds of flights, mostly out of Chicago, on Sunday, claiming fog. Flights were also canceled out of Denver.
It was the only U.S. airline with major issues on Sunday.
The Dallas-based airline released a statement vowing operations are "stable" in an effort to calm nerves with the 2022 travel meltdown on fliers' minds.
One year ago, Southwest blamed a winter storm and schedule problems for canceling nearly 17,000 flights and leaving 2 million passengers stranded over the holidays.
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While other airlines recovered, Southwest couldn't keep up.
Jennifer Levi was caught in the Southwest Airlines mess last year. This year was, thankfully, a different story, coming back from Florida.
"This is a good year for travel for us," said Levi.
This weekend's disruption trickled over into Christmas Day. At the end of the day Monday, Southwest canceled 110 flights.
More than 700 were delayed, accounting for nearly 20 percent of the fleet.