Hundreds of flights were canceled or delayed late Saturday and early Sunday as dense fog blanketed the Chicago area, leaving holiday travelers hoping to be with their families stuck and steamed.
The fog started affecting Southwest’s Midway operations Saturday night, and delays continued into Sunday morning, the airline said.
As a result, 195 flights were canceled at Midway, 113 of which were set to depart from the airport, with 255 flights delayed. By late Sunday, with the fog clearing, the average delay at Midway airport was 41 minutes — peaking at about two hours earlier in the evening — while O’Hare’s delays remained under 15 minutes throughout the night.
“We continue to experience some delays and diversions as fog remains a factor,” a spokesperson said. “We apologize for the inconvenience to our customers as we work to get them to their destination safely.”
Midway is Southwest’s fourth busiest airport operation, and more than 200 departures a day are scheduled over the holiday weekend, Southwest said in a statement. The airline was also reporting delays in Denver.
Sunday’s cancellations come almost exactly a year after the airline’s operating system malfunctioned and led to thousands of canceled and delayed flights. Southwest reached a $140 million settlement last week as a result of the mishap.
My Administration filed a $140 million penalty against Southwest Airlines for its 2022 holiday meltdown.
— President Biden (@POTUS) December 19, 2023
This is on top of $600 million @USDOT secured in refunds for passengers who faced disruptions.
Taxpayers kept airlines afloat during COVID-19. They should get a better deal.
“My administration filed a $140 million penalty against Southwest Airlines for its 2022 holiday meltdown,” President Joe Biden said in a statement on social media. “Taxpayers kept airlines afloat during COVID-19. They should get a better deal.”
Maurice Ortiz of Chicago said his 6:30 p.m. flight to Fort Meyers, Florida, was delayed past midnight.
Last year Ortiz was one of the thousands caught up in flight delays over the holidays. He missed a family dinner after waiting in the airport for several hours and arriving days later on alternate flights.
“I might not be flying Southwest again,” Ortiz said. “They’ve always been reliable, but when it comes to the holidays or something going on weather-wise, they fall apart every time.”
Ortiz said the weather isn’t an excuse given how other airlines don’t appear to be having the same issues — and especially for an airline operating out of Chicago.
“To have an airline fall apart just because of the weather, or a little fog or whatever, is ridiculous,” Ortiz said. “We’re in Chicago. … The sky isn’t always going to be blue.”
The Department of Transportation found that last holiday season the airline failed to provide “prompt or proper refunds to thousands of passengers for flights the carrier cancelled or significantly changed;” didn’t issue “prompt flight status notifications to over one million passengers for flight disruptions; and did not offer “adequate customer service assistance to hundreds of thousands of consumers during the widespread flight irregularities.”
Southwest executives assured the traveling public this year that it had upgraded its technology to avoid a crunch like last year’s, which the pilot’s union blamed on a lack of investment.
Last week, it was announced that Southwest pilots would vote in January on a contract that could boost pay by 50% over the five-year term of the agreement.
For Carly Shaw and her husband, Sunday’s extended wait for their flight to Florida recalled last year’s hitch, when her husband was almost late to arrive for their wedding after taking four flights. Shaw said she was still concerned about a repeat.
“At least this year we don’t have a hard date we have to make like last year,” she said.
Sunday was the second consecutive day the National Weather Service has issued an advisory for fog in the Chicago area. Portions of central, east central, north central and northeast Illinois and northwest Indiana are affected.
The dense fog, reducing visibility to a quarter of a mile or less, created hazardous driving conditions, the weather service said.
The weather on Christmas Day will be rainy, with highs in the mid-50s, according to the weather service. The rain will continue into Monday night, with the low around 45 degrees.
Ocho and Abel, brothers from the Indianapolis suburbs who declined to give their last names, said they were given $15 vouchers when their flight to Guadalajara, Mexico, was delayed eight hours.
Despite the compensation and a now-18-hour travel day ahead of them, they said they were making do with episodes of “NCIS” and “SWAT.”
“It is what it is, I’m not mad,” Ocho said. “We get to see family soon, so it’s whatever.”
The siblings said they usually travel the week before Christmas, and said this year’s travel snag was likely to make them return to their old ways of leaving early.
“Traveling this close to Christmas, it’s bound to happen,” Ocho said. “We’ll probably leave a little bit earlier next year.”
Contributing: Mohammad Samra
