Extensive Flight Cancellations Continue At San Diego Airport

After cancelling all flights in and out of San Diego International Airport on Monday afternoon, Southwest Airlines cancelled 120 flights on Tuesday and 112 on Wednesday. While the airline is struggling to recover, they have also canceled 2,348 flights scheduled for Thursday (nationwide) and are not accepting new reservations until after New Year's Day (at the earliest).

Many travelers have been stranded in the San Diego airport for days and others have been forced to find alternate transportation as a result of the delays and cancellations.

On Tuesday, Southwest CEO. Bob Jordon apologized to its customers:

“I want everyone who is dealing with the problems we’ve been facing, whether you haven’t been able to get to where you need to go or you’re one of our heroic employees caught up in a massive effort to stabilize the airline, to know is that we’re doing everything we can to return to a normal operation. And please also hear that I’m truly sorry,” 

Storms and severe weather throughout the country are largely to blame. The company says it was "uniquely affected by winter storms" that hit their largest hubs in Denver and Chicago. Southwest employees also complain that the company's outdated communications systems have complicated and already difficult situation.

During an interview on that aired Tuesday on NBC Nightly News, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said “You’ve got passengers who are stranded, you’ve got passengers who can’t get ahold of customer service, it’s an unacceptable situation.”