$LUV investors are as happy today as the many thousands of people stuck in airports because of a historical wave of cancelations from Southwest Airlines. 🤬
Upwards of 70% of Southwest’s flights have been canceled, with reports on social media from flyers that many were told the cancelations would last through Friday.
While not in the news, a trending Reddit thread in the subreddit, r/OutOfTheLoop, explains that Southwest’s problems are worse than just the weather.
A commenter, neither confirming nor denying he is affiliated with Southwest Airlines, wrote that “… the situation is kind of amplified by the fact that they are now doing crew scheduling by hand — their crew scheduling system went offline at some point during this fiasco…”
And communication has reportedly been dismal. A Southwest customer wrote: “Their phone system went down as well yesterday! And their self-service options for these types of situations are pitiful. Complete shitshow.”
Users also commented that rental cars and trains were all sold out at/near Chicago’s O’hare (3rd busiest airport in the U.S., 6th in the world). “Just passed through Chicago. No rental cars available, trains were sold out, luckily snagged an overnight Greyhounds bus.”
Airline stocks, in general, are down today. Analysts believe the selling pressure is because the Christmas Holiday winter storm has wreaked havoc on transportation.
Worse than interrupted travel, though, the storm has claimed the lives of at least 60 people nationwide – a number that has steadily increased throughout the day.
At the time of writing, Southwest was down nearly -5% for the day. 🤒
