By Senad Karaahmetovic
Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) shares are down over 4% in pre-market Tuesday as the airline continues to cancel flights amid the ongoing winter storm.
It seems that no airline is struggling more to cope with the hectic holiday schedule than Southwest. The company canceled nearly 3,000 flights by Monday night, which represents at least 70% of its schedule for the day, according to FlightAware data.
The number of canceled flights by Southwest is bigger by over 10 times relative to the second-placed Delta (NYSE:DAL), which canceled 265 flights as of Monday night.
The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) said it will look closer at Southwest’s actions that saw thousands of flights canceled.
"USDOT is 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," the department said.
USDOT would "closely examine whether cancellations were controllable and whether Southwest is complying with its customer service plan as well as all other pertinent DOT rules."
The airline released a statement on Monday, offering "heartfelt apologies" and said, "with consecutive days of extreme winter weather across our network behind us, continuing challenges are impacting our customers and employees in a significant way that is unacceptable."
Shares of Delta Air Lines, American Airlines (NASDAQ:AAL), and United Airlines (NASDAQ:UAL) are trading about half a percent higher in pre-market.