WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said the large-scale disruptions experienced by airline Southwest Airlines were no longer related to poor weather and were indicative of a “system failure”. “.
“The time for talking about weather issues is over,” Pete Buttigieg said in an interview published by ABC News on Wednesday. “Don’t get me wrong, it all started with this severe storm. We saw winter conditions hit the country and seriously disrupt all airlines.”
Nationally, at least 60 people have died in incidents related to Winter Storm Eliott in recent days, NBC News reported.
Other air transport players appear to have recovered from the weather disruptions, however, Pete Buttigieg said.
“So this is a system failure (on Southwest’s part), and the company needs to ensure that these stranded passengers get to their destination and receive adequate compensation, not just for the flights themselves. same (…) but also for hotels, ground transport and meals, because it is the responsibility of the airlines”, he declared, adding to having discussed with the leaders of the company.
More than 2,500 Southwest Airlines flights were canceled Wednesday morning, according to flight tracking website FlightAware.
US airlines have canceled thousands of flights following the massive winter storm that swept through much of the country ahead of the Christmas weekend, but Southwest’s difficulties have worsened as other airlines have saw their situation recover to a large extent.
Southwest Airlines told Reuters it would reimburse customers for travel costs and had already processed thousands of claims on Tuesday.
Its boss, Bob Jordan, said the low-cost carrier needed to upgrade its transportation systems and apologized to customers and employees in a video message.
(Report by Kanishka Singh in Washington; French version Jean Rosset, edited by Blandine Hénault)
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