Southwest cancels thousands more flights, including to and from Albany

COLONIE, N.Y. (NEWS10) - Travel disruptions are continuing for many, as Southwest Airlines canceled over 2,500 flights again on Wednesday. Those cancellations include several coming into and out of Albany International Airport.

Long lines that were seen inside the main terminal building on Tuesday were replaced with a handful of passengers checking into the outbound flight to Baltimore Wednesday morning.

Two passengers on that flight were Bill and Ann Joan Fitzpatrick, connecting through Baltimore to Colorado to visit their grandchildren for the holidays, "We can’t wait, can’t wait to see them," they said.

The couple says they were very concerned about whether or not they'd be able to get to Denver with the multitude of cancellations on Southwest across the country.

"We were listening to the news and hoping that we were going to be able to be going, and on the iPad all the time, checking. So, happily we’re making it, we’re here and thinking well, we’re waiting till we get here, and we were very fortunate," they said.

Many others have not been as fortunate.

According to FlightAware, Southwest has canceled just over 2,500 flights Wednesday, slightly less than the nearly 2,700 from Tuesday, as the carrier reaches another day of canceling more than half its scheduled flights.

Those numbers starkly contrast to other domestic carriers on Tuesday. The next highest in terms of number of cancellations was Spirit with 102, while the highest for an airline serving Albany was United with 79.

Southwest has blamed logistical challenges brought on by the continued impacts of the historic winter storm that swept across different parts of the country around the holidays.

"With our large fleet of airplanes and flight crews out of position in dozens of locations, and after days of trying to operate as much of our full schedule across the busy holiday weekend, we reached a decision point to significantly reduce our flying to catch up," said Bob Jordan, Southwest's CEO.

In a video message, Jordan apologized to impacted customers, and vowed to make sure it won't happen again, "We always take care of our customers, and we will lean in and go above and beyond as they would expect us to."

Inside Albany Airport Wednesday, passengers arriving from Baltimore had varying experiences. One telling News10 they felt lucky to have no issues, while another's return to the Capital Region saw delays and cancellations.

Southwest says it's optimistic to be back on track before next week.