Department of Transportation to probe Southwest cancellations that stranded flyers

WASHINGTON (WJLA) — The U.S. Department of Transportation said it is "concerned" about flight cancellations by Southwest Airlines that have left travelers stranded at airports across the country amid an intense winter storm that has killed dozens of people.

Many airlines were forced to cancel flights due to the weather, but Southwest was the most affected. About 4,000 domestic U.S. flights were cancelled Monday, according to the tracking website FlightAware, and 2,900 of those were Southwest's. Nearly 2,500 more flights had already been canceled as of 5 a.m. Tuesday and problems are likely to continue at least into Wednesday.

USDOT is concerned by Southwest’s unacceptable rate of cancellations and delays & reports of lack of prompt customer service," the department noted on Twitter. "The Department will examine whether cancellations were controllable and if Southwest is complying with its customer service plan."

Holiday cheer was in short supply at Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C. due to a seemingly endless number of horror stories.

This is chaos and it’s upsetting," said traveler Mauren Concannon.

Traveler Bridget Cseko added, “We’ve been here since 8 o’clock this morning.”

Cseko and her family were among a sea of Southwest Airlines travelers wondering how they’re going to get home.

So, they told us while we were standing in line that there are absolutely no flights until Friday which is the day we are supposed to come back," said Cseko.

There was a similar situation at BWI in Baltimore, Maryland.

Caught trying to catch his connecting flight, one traveler was attempting to see family in Atlanta. Instead, he found himself waiting in line for customer service 14 hours later; only to learn his next available option: flying out until Friday. The issue forced him to cancel his plans entirely.

Baltimore’s not where my kids live, it’s not where I live, it’s just a stopover," stranded traveler Bill Mckenna said. "I was in line for 14 hours and it was super difficult, I was tired, I was thirsty, I was hungry. It's not much of a vacation."

According to FlightAware, Southwest cancelled or delayed 87-percent of its flights as of Monday night.

The airline told WJLA in a prepared statement that “extreme weather” caused a “wide-scale disruption” that will take the company days to recover from by “rebalancing the airline and repositioning Crews and our fleet” and that “a significant portion of our published schedule has been cancelled.”

Southwest admitted these “continuing challenges are unacceptable” and issued "heartfelt apologies."

I think they’ve got a logistics problem," said traveler Bob Berstein.

Bernstein and his family can’t get to Houston until Saturday, so he’s driving home to Texas.

And it’s pretty messed up because they don’t even have people to email or text their customers telling them that the flights have been delayed," Bernstein said.

“They couldn’t get us from Hartford to Tampa but they said, 'we can get you to Reagan'," said traveler Kristin Laliberte.

Instead of being in Connecticut with family, Laliberte spent Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and Monday stranded at the airport since her family lives in Florida. She would rent a car and drive to see loved ones but says no vehicles are available.

“There are no cars," Laliberte added. "There are no planes and for the foreseeable future neither one will be available.”

Passengers told WJLA Southwest employees are admitting to them that insufficient staffing is also to blame.

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EDITOR'S NOTE: The Associated Press contributed to this report.