As Southwest Airlines' Christmas flight cancellations and delays intensified and drew federal attention, the number of irate airline passengers increased by the hundreds of thousands on Monday.
According to flight tracking website FlightAware, about 5,000 flights had been delayed as of 2:30 p.m. ET on Monday, while more than 3,200 flights inside, into, or out of the US had already been canceled.
But a huge portion of those were attributable to Southwest. According to flight-tracking website FlightAware, the Dallas-based airline canceled two-thirds of its flights as of Monday afternoon – far more than any other airline. FlightAware discovered that 700 more Southwest flights were delayed on Monday after 2,700 were canceled,
Oakland International Airport in the Bay Area recorded 165 Southwest cancellations and 45 delays as of Monday evening. Mineta San Jose International Airport saw 153 cancellations and 64 delays compared to 85 cancellations and 258 delays at San Francisco International Airport.
The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) stated in a statement that it was "concerned by Southwest Airlines' disproportionate and unacceptable rate of cancellations and delays as well as the failure to properly support customers experiencing a cancellation or delay" and that it would look into the airline's holiday cancellation meltdown.
As part of its statement, the DOT added that it will "review whether cancellations were controllable and whether Southwest is adhering to its customer service plan."
According to reporter Kelly Laco, the display at Dallas Love Field, the airline's primary hub, revealed that every single arrival had been postponed on Monday afternoon.