Southwest Airlines' 'Colorado One' 737-700 takes off from Montrose Regional Airport on Dec. 16, 2022. Southwest has canceled about 2/3 of its flights nationwide, including in Montrose at Montrose Regional Airport.
Southwest Airlines' 'Colorado One' 737-700 takes off from Montrose Regional Airport on Dec. 16, 2022. Southwest has canceled about 2/3 of its flights nationwide, including in Montrose at Montrose Regional Airport.
Commercial flights across the country have taken a hit in the last week, with thousands of cancellations nationwide, and Montrose Regional Airport has been no exception.
A majority of the cancellations came from turmoil at Southwest Airlines, America’s leading low-cost airline. Woes started just before Christmas, as heavy snow and subfreezing temperatures delayed and even halted some flights across the northern Midwest and the mountain regions.
Since issues began on Friday, Dec. 23, the airline has seen one of their worst flight disruptions on record. Amid the severe storms, outdated scheduling networks became overwhelmed, as staff and flight crew were often misplaced, leading to thousands of flights being canceled, including 2,900 on Monday, per FlightAware. On Tuesday, Southwest Airlines CEO Bob Jordan gave a statement on the ongoing issues.
“I want everyone who is dealing with the problems we’ve been facing…to know that we’re doing everything we can to return to a normal operation…We’re focused on safely getting all the pieces back into position to end this rolling struggle,” Jordan said.
The bulk of Montrose Regional Airport’s traffic comes from winter flights from December through April, flights which cater to skiers and other winter adventure enthusiasts, plus holiday vacationers. Among these flights, Southwest operates out of Denver International Airport and Dallas Love Field Airport, with one to three flights per day to each destination.
In the past week, at least one flight from each city has been canceled per day, and some days have seen only one or two Southwest aircraft arrive in Montrose. The issues have come as Southwest prepares to launch a new route, from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport to Montrose, on Jan. 5. The flight will run once each Saturday.
Montrose’s Friday Southwest operations are scheduled to return to normal, with three flights to Denver and one to Dallas. American, Delta, and United Airlines operations in Montrose remain normal. For further updates, we recommend checking swamedia.com for the latest.
As of Thursday, Southwest plans on running a schedule roughly one third of their normal one until Friday, per a default reply to an MDP request for comment to Southwest’s media team. This roughly two-thirds cancellation rate has been reflected in Montrose.
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