Following dense fog in the Chicago area Sunday that caused widespread flight cancellations at Midway International Airport, Southwest Airlines has released a statement saying their operations are "stable" as the company aims to stem concerns over a meltdown similar to one in 2022.
According to Southwest Airlines, approximately 300 of the airline's 4,242 systemwide flights were canceled on Sunday due to the fog at Midway, which serves as the airline's fourth-largest operation nationwide.
The airline said the dense fog that began on Saturday night and continued into Sunday morning prevented inbound aircraft from landing, which forced several diversions and subsequent flight cancellations.
Southwest does not anticipate any major service disruptions on Monday or the following days, though 101 systemwide flights have been canceled on Monday with some additional cancellations expected heading into Tuesday.
"We have proactively cancelled 101 flights for Monday (less than 1% of our more than 4300 flights systemwide). We do anticipate a handful of additional cancellations today as we work toward a full recovery ahead of Tuesday’s operation. We have all-hands on deck as our Employees are working to quickly and safely take care of our Customers during this busy holiday travel season, and we apologize for any inconvenience to those whose travel was affected over the last two days," a statement from Southwest Airlines said.
The holiday disruption comes one year after an historic travel disruption upended the airline's operations following a winter storm in the days following Christmas last year, leading to thousands of the airline's flights being canceled and customers being separated from their luggage.
The airline attributed the 2022 meltdown to the winter storm and "scheduling problems."
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