we did reach out to southwest airlines for an interview. the airline company has been responding to customers on twitter, and southwest says it is trying to reaccommodate as many customers as possible whose itineraries have been disrupted. we have a former commercial airline pilot and training instructor. so let's dive into this here. how widespread are the delays for southwest? just how bad is this? >> well, it's unfortunate for southwest because they are leading the delays and mostly those cancellations, and they have been all week. we don't want to pick on southwest. they're one of my favorite carriers. they have such great leeway for people who use their tickets. they give you up to ten minutes before departure to cancel. one of the issues with them though is they are more of a short haul carrier, short and medium range, so that means they have a lot of what we call turnaround times. in other words, on a given day on average their jets are making more flights because they're sh shorter. those turnaround times bog things down. you're not

now we did speak to some more southwest airlines employees.re saying they are not at all surprised by this widespread meltdown. southwest airlines flight attendant union vice president corliss king says the airline's computer scheduling system was a disaster waiting to happen. there was a perfect storm, no pun intended combined. one historic winter storm, hundreds of thousands of holiday travelers in decades, old computer technology. we have a lot of things happened at one time. and what that did was expose the real under one issue, which is our challenges in our technology and our inability to quickly recover. king has worked for southwest airlines for 12 years and says employees have long warned company executives about the flaws and their employee scheduling system. >> she says the exact just didn't listen. we're the first people to know when the operation on paper but we do not necessarily have a seat at the table. southwest airlines is apologizing for the breakdown, blaming it on whether but for now. >> we're focused on restoring the reli

it's southwest airlines. what more can you tell us about that situation you had with the ceo of southwest airlines and what is he doing? what are they doing to correct these major issues? >> well, over the course of the last year, as you know, we've seen a number of issues with the different airlines and in the summer in particular, we pressed them to improve their standard of customer service. they provided commitments in writing including southwest they would go above the previous level of what you do to take care of customers with things like covering the cost, if you get stuck and you need a hotel or a meal in addition to rebooking you to get your on your way. now that we have those commitments that were made to us over the summer, we're going to be using that as a tool to hold them accountable and i made that clear to southwest leadership. now, they did -- the ceo pledged to me they will not only meet but exceed the customer service standards and commitments they made to us in the past and that we're in

you hear this apology from the president of southwest airlines. king about some of the largest airlines -- southwest airlines in the country. your union has said come the pilots union has said, that you have been warning southwest about this for years. talk about the problems that has caused this meltdown that other airlines do not seem to be experiencing. 90% of the cancellations of all airlinesre southwest. >> good rning. thank you for having me. there is -- it is unconscionable to me that we a sitti here today in 2022 whewe heeen unding t alarm, along with our pilots union and other unions, that our technology issu are absolutely going to lead us to this ple. we have seen this before. this is not the first time it is the first time has happened over christmas and affected so many, but we have had issues. spending the night on airport floors. sleeping in hallways. yet we are still showing up. we are still ready to service our passengers even under those conditions. at our union and the pilots union and i'm sure other unions have been asking our c

southwest. i'm going to other airlines. >> reporter: it may be too late. in the frenzy over the southwest cancelations, a number of other major airlines are putting price caps on flights between certain cities to help folks get home. but there's no guarantee that southwest will cover that new fare. back to you. >> what a mess. >> reporter: yeah. >> jarred hill in new york. thanks. >>> on the west coast, torrential rains, strong winds, flooding, and snow are pummelling the region. carter evans reports. >> reporter: high surf battered the coast of oregon as the intense storm blew ashore dumping a deluge of rain across the pacific northwest leaving nearly 200,000 in the dark at its peak. >> power's out now all over the place here. >> reporter: the worst of it hit during unusually high king tides flooding streets in seattle. at the peak of the storm, five people were killed on the road in oregon, and powerful winds, some gusting more than 100 miles per hour, toppled trees. this shows the atmospheric river funneling tropical moisture directly to the western u.s.

southwest. calling the airlines, nowhere to be found. i got hung up on multiple times. >> the problem is southwest, they don't give any answer. they don't answer the phone. >> there's no option to rebook anything online. i've been on hold for five hours and 43 minutes. >> reporter: passenger jason freed shows us the proof. southwest airline is experiencing this as a result of the winter storm's lingering effect on the totality of our operation. in the wake of dangerously cold temperatures and winter weather across the nation, airlines canceling thousands of flights on monday. >> they were scheduled to fly out on saturday and canceled flight after canceled flight until this morning. now it's stand by hoping we get on to get home. >> reporter: thousands more flights delayed. >> delayed, delayed, delayed, wins and repeat. >> reporter: airports across the nation, long lines. chaos. frustrated passengers and luggage piling up. >> there's a lack of communication. there's no transparency. there's no staff. it's okay if there's no staff, it's oka

you know where to go. >>> so why is southwest airlines having such a travel meltdown? u.s. carriers got back to business fairly quickly after the snowstorms. southwest has been around for more than half a century, and it used to pride itself on its top ranking for customer satisfaction by the transportation department. lynn montgomery heads the flight attendants union for southwest, and she joins us tonight. lynn, thanks so much for being here. i know it's been a busy day. what has this meltdown been like for the flight attendants? >> it has been absolutely horrific. the most despicable working conditions that you can imagine. you know, flying during the holidays is already a challenging time, even on a normal year. it's filled with busyness and wanting to be with your family and hustle bustle that creates a lot of stress. so it's really, really difficult with this happening. >> and so when you say despicable flying conditions, what is it like? are they stranded at various airports? we just heard from a passenger who it took her 26 hours to get home over christmas. are

we reached out to southwest for an interview, but the airline declined. tation secretary told me that the southwest ceo is pledging to exceed its previous commitments. how much faith do you put in the company to fix these issues that union leaders have raised for years? >> i don't have much faith at all. we have heard empty words, empty promises for many years. and what our customers are feeling today is the results of those empty promises. >> secretary buttigieg, it's interesting, he isn't ruling out -- he made it clear in our interview, he isn't ruling out fines for southwest. is that what will -- is that what it will take for southwest airlines to get its act together? >> well, it's definitely going to push, you know, the needle forward to some degree. we have to see positive, firm commitment from southwest airlines leadership. this has been a leadership failure from top to bottom sense this began. this has gone on many times over the past couple of years, and we have tried to help, we tried to offer solutions, and they have given us the hand. and here

airlines. and with southwest, they really failed to recover. ey totally failed to, you know, get their crews back on schedule, their flight routes are super different than other airlines in that they zig zag across the country, and the legacy technology has totally failed them. >> gillian: quickly here, we just got about 30 seconds left. do you have any tips for travelers who have future flights booked with southwest? can they avoid, you know, calamity here or locked in? >> if you are travelling into the next few days, look into a back-up option now. whether it's buying a ticket with another airline and then getting southwest to reimburse it, or postponing your trip. if you are travelling with southwest, look into back-up options and if possible, don't check a bag. more than anything, be kind to the agent, though. because the front line employees are not the reason that southwest is melting down. >> gillian: thanks for joining us, appreciate it. >> anita: $1.2 billion plan approved by los angeles voters six years ago to house thousands of homele

call a -- i'm driving a rental cargo van down to national tennessee. >> southwest airlines -- with consecutive days of extreme winter weather across our network behind, us continuing challenges, and customers employee in a significant way that is unacceptable. the airline adding, quote, we recognize -- sincerely apologize, but that is cold comfort for the hundreds of passengers here in denver and across the nation. cnn, denver. >> kathleen -- former airline pilot for flightaware joins me now from washington state. thank you for being with us. >> right to be, where shower here under happier circumstances. >> absolutely agree with you. of course we are seeing these long lines from passengers stranded at airports around the country, due to this bad weather, most of the passengers of southwest airlines, that same carrier has -- how likely is it that we will see more southwest cancellations coming? >> it is really stunning that it looks like we are already over 60% of tomorrow's cancellations, which are already almost 3000, clearly unprecedented considering weather has been considerably and these w

southwest airlines flight attendant union vice president corliss king says the airline's computer scheduling system was a disaster waiting to happen. there was a perfect storm, no pun intended combined. one historic winter storm, hundreds of thousands of holiday travelers in decades, old computer technology. we have a lot of things happening at one time. and what that did was expose the real under oie issue, which is our challenges and our technology and our inability. >> to quickly recover. king has worked for southwest airlines for 12 years and says employees have long warned company executives about the flaws and their employee scheduling system. she says the exact just didn't listen. we're the first people to know when the operation on paper but we do not necessarily have a seat at the table. southwest airlines is apologizing for the breakdown, blaming it on whether but for now. >> we're focused on restoring the reliability and level of customer experience. we expect of ourselves and that you expect from us. as of thursday. the company says one in 3 of its flights are back on schedule an

systems that southwest airlines use that are unique to southwest airlines.y would be able to reschedule the operation when massive cancellations occur. however, in our ceo has reported to us and our ceo as reported to us, they can't keep up with the demand. these systems can't do things quickly enough. we have been promised that they are putting enough into the systems, they have spent enough money, but they started so lay in trying to update the systems, that even all those efforts haven't come out to make any reasonable changes. >> the ceo of southwest airlines, tonight but out a statement, he said i've nothing but pride and respect for the efforts of the people of southwest who are showing up every day and every way. i am apologizing to them daily, they will be hearing more about our specific plans. in the future. what do you want from him? >> we are so tired of apologies. we are so tired of southwest airlines just getting through one major catastrophe and then going on to the next one and saying oh, we are sorry again. please get an action plan. we need

ama: the mass flight cancellations across the country and continued southwest airlines meltdown. despite slight improvements, nationwide more than 4000 flights were canceled today. more than 2500 of those were southwest flights. in the bay area, a total of 74 flights were canceled in minette of san jose. 23 in san francisco. dan: while we have heard plenty of nightmare travel stories from southwest customers, now we are hearing from employees as well. ground workers were southwest say the airline made unreasonable demands on them during this meltdown. the president of the union spoke with members of congress. abc7 news reporter melanie woodrow has the story. melanie: as southwest tries to recover from what our calling a meltdown -- what some are calling a meltdown, employees are speaking out. >> when the weather started happening, we started having issues. melanie: the president of twu local 555 represents ground workers at southwest airlines. he says his workers were battling subzero temperatures and ice storms, many working 16 to 18 hour days. >> we are performing one of the mos

southwest airlines is coming under intense scrutiny after canceling thousands of flights leaving travelers stranded. the airline struggling to keep up as a massive winter storm pounded much of the u.s. now transportation secretary pete buttigieg is getting involved. jarred hill is in new york. jarred, good morning. >> reporter: hey, good morning, wendy. there's no question that what's happening with these flights is a mess, to say the least, but government officials are investigating whether this mess with southwest in particular was avoidable. according to flightaware southwest still makes up the vast majority of today's cancellations. post-christmas chaos at the nation's airports after southwest airlines canceled more than 60% of its flights for the second day in a row stranding thousands of frustrated flyers. >> it's just unacceptable. everybody knows that during the holidays there's going to be some delay, but just outright cancellations is not okay. >> reporter: with more cancellations today, some travelers looked for other ways to reach their destination. >> we tried to get a train,

murray says everyone involved suffering because for years, southwest airlines ignored calls to update decades old computer software in scheduling systems. these meltdowns occur regularly at southwest. and we've been trying to offer solutions. this should never of happened. transportation secretary pete buttigieg agrees he's promising to hold the airline accountable and says his agency is working to help impacted customers making sure that anybody. >> flight is canceled can get a prompt cash refund, but also making sure that your meals here, your hotels, your ground, transportation. >> are covered. southwest airlines ceo is promising to uphold those commitments. we always take care of our customers. >> and we will lean in and go above and beyond as they would expect us to believe that southwest should take this as a wake-up call. if they don't, they're not going to survive. they've got to tell the public there. they have to tell the government and they're going to tell their frontline employees. >> exactly what steps they're going to take. >> the ceo of southwest airlines says he's opt

southwest airlines ceo telling the "wall street journal" this is the largest-scale event i have ever seen. the airline says it will most likely have to cancel more flights today. as thurgood marshall airport, and also at chicago's international airport, start with you, gabe. how are things looking this hour? i see a lot of people behind you. we've heard from passengers on the phone for hours, waiting at airports for several hours. what's happening as of right noi? now? >> reporter: kaitlan, we're hearing a lot of that frustration. people arrives to the airport just to realize their flight is canceled. look behind me. that's the southwest ticketing counter. it's not the zoo it's been in recent days. the story is on the board. canceled, done preemptively last night cancels 60% of the airline's flights today. more than 2,500 of them. vast majority of all canceled flights across the country and the ceo of southwest told "usa today" they're only scheduling flights and regrouping after the winter storm and holiday rush. take a listen to one of those southwest officials speaking last night a

calmer skies for southwest. the airlinens to a normal flight schedule after a nightmare week of cancellations. trump taxes released. six years of the former president's tax returns revealed, thousands of pages show millions in income losses. plus cbs' scott macfarlane has more on new january 6 witness transcripts, including ginni thomas, wife of supreme court justice clarence thomas. border city overwhelmed. migrants overcrowding emergency shelters as they seek asylum claims. cbs' omar villafranca reports tonight from el paso. and "on the road." cbs' steve hartman with a lesson in kindness, both inside and outside the classroom. this is the "cbs evening news" with norah o'donnell, reporting from the nation's capital. >> duncan: good evening to our viewers in the west, and thank you for joining us on this friday. i'm jericka duncan in for norah. tonight, six years of donald trump's tax returns have been made public. thousands of pages of financial documents show staggering losses, questionable deductions, and very little pai

mostly to southwest airlines. ide have been canceled and over 2,500 are from southwest. the situation now catching the attention of the u.s. department of transportation. similar circumstances continue to play out at the oakland international airport and others across the country. one family tells us they were trying to spend christmas with their son in san diego but their flight transferred them to oakland on sunday and they've been stuck here ever since sleeping on benches. >> we had to sleep here. >> they don't give any accommodations for you to eat or where to stay because of the bad weather. >> the airline says while they recover they've decided only to fly one-third of their scheduled flights the next several days. southwest wrote in part, quote, our employees and crews scheduled to work this holiday season are showing up in every single way but a leaked memo from the airline states they have entered a state of operational emergency due to an unusually high number of absences. >>> from the air to the slopes.

why we're saying it's mostly passengers of southwest airlines that are being impacted by this. what has gone wrong with their company? >> well, it's a couple interesting things. southwest has had a great reputation and known for really outstanding customer service. so i'm sure this really hurts them hard. we have to look at the last worst day of cancellations in 2022, the day that broke the record until last friday for 2022 was february 3rd, not a holiday. a lot of people don't remember it, but the airlines canceled because of a weather event then. they knew a major ice storm was coming across the u.s. airports like dallas-fort worth shut down. airlines canceled thousands of flights preemptively. what helped then is people didn't get stranded. the problem with that's happened now is we also knew again that a horrific weather event was coming and it was going to be almost nationwide, but the airlines didn't really cut too many flights. southwest cut a few. some airlines had a few cancellations, but they tried to maintain those holiday schedules for the obvious reason, that the on

for southwest airlines, it has been a nightmare. just under 3,000 flights were canceled.saw in maryann's piece just there come over 4,000 flights have been canceled but look at that number, more than half of those total flights canceled have been southwest. obviously, everyone is having problems. there was a former winter weather patterns that affected 150 million plus people over the weekend. but you look up pete buttigieg and what he is saying, not the excuse but the solution is they will hold them accountable. they will find them but who is to say it won't happen again? what happened? it is so hard to try to figure out what happened. will there be accountability? will we actually get the answers we need? this was all for what happened to these people. people being stuck at the airport over holidays here there is a woman her team spoke to yesterday, and she still doesn't have her luggage. she is in salt lake city and her luggage in dallas. she has one of those apple air tags so she knows it is on a truck headed to salt lake city. but there has been no communication when

southwest. the pilots of the airline. to all of our passengers, it really does. >> so we've learned this week southwest has made some software improvements. cnn's reporting is that last year the airline connected the reservation system with booking software, that system was overhauled in 2017. in recent years southwest also introduced bar codes and scanners to replace pen and paper methods for counting checked bags but according to union officials other tools remain in 1990s technology and that was a driver of this meltdown that took a human toll. >> it was very frustrating. this was something i was looking forward to. i feel they don't have a remedy for it. >> i'm beyond frustrated and hurt. because i can't see my dad. so yeah, it's very disappointing. >> i've been a long-time southwest fan, 20 years, travel a lot. this year has been a bad one. they have really disappointed me. >> do you have a message to the ceo if he's watching? what do you say to him? >> fix it. fix it. he has a lot of loyal fans and he's losing them l

.>> it is not getting better anytime soon, the latest from southwest as government officials put the airline. >>> we are tracking an incoming storm set to dump rain on the bay area, the first of many systems that are headed our way. ♪ ♪>>> let's get straight to the storm, that is something that everybody in the bay area is going to have to do with in the coming days, from the radar, storm ranger in place and scanning, of top san bruno mountain already tracking the storm, north bay is said to feel the storm first. we have got you covered. terry mcsweeney is in the elements in marin county, looking at how people are preparing. first liz gibbs the updated timeline from rob. >> within the last hour, the wind advisory is in effect around the bay area, one of the signs from the atmospheric river, the wind direction and the temperature in downtown san jose, a mild 59 degrees, the southwest wind, southeast at 50 miles per hour, areas along the coast, east bay hills and northbay hills about 7 am will have the potential, 35-50 miles per hour, this might wake you up overnight, before sunrise, 4 am-5 am

. >> and now it's it's the travel turmoil continues for southwest airlines. more than 60% of its flights canceled again today. southwest is now saying it will operate only a 3rd of its scheduled flights in coming days and it is scrambling to get thousands of people to their destinations. hello, everyone. thank you for joining us 6. i'm catherine heenan and i'm stephanie land. mass flight cancellations continue to create many problems for bay area holiday travelers today. >> here's a look at the flight cancellations at all. 3 airports according to the flight tracking website, flightaware travelers at the san jose airport are getting the worst of it all. 147 canceled flights there. our from southwest airlines over at oakland international airport, a similar situation, all 124 flight cancellations. there are southwest and at sfo. 38 out of 47 flight cancellations, our from southwest. all right. let's take a live look oakland's this looks like the people checking in and getting a bag check to stephanie just said they're not too far behind sfo. they've also had a a

southwest airlines says it's returning to normal operations today, according to flight that airline has canceled only 39 flights in the bay area this morning. kron four's raquel martin tells us about southwest plan to get travelers finally back home. >> well, thursday afternoon, southwest airlines announced it would be returning to a nearly normal schedule come friday. that's after thousands of flights were canceled in the past week. now, southwest airlines employees we spoke to in recent days say they are not at all surprised by this system wide failure. southwest airlines flight attendant union vice president corliss king says the airline's computer scheduling system was a disaster waiting to happen. there was a perfect storm, no pun intended combined. one historic winter storm, hundreds of thousands of holiday travelers in decades, old computer technology. we have a lot of things happened at one time. and what that did was expose the real under one issue, which is our challenges in our technology and our inability. >> to quickly recover. king has worked for southwest airlines for 12

southwest was viewed at the cool airline. it was huge in the southwest.eat. >> you hop on the la shuttle there. it's like 50 minute flight. you booze up. everybody has a grand old time and you can get it for cheap. i think it was that coolness, that sort of laid backness. well i think we're seeing right now there is a reason that whole kind of model happened. it's because they didn't do the spoke and hub concept. they did a direct flight. that clearly isn't working now. so i think overall they might need an entire reset. one from a pr perspective, two, they've got to figure out how they get person a to spot b when they need to get there and not have these numbers you see. also, one question i think we need to keep badgering all of our guests on, the ones that are in the know, where the did that covid money go? they got $7 billion of a bailout. did it go to stock buybacks? did it go to ceo compensation? it was supposed to go to make sure these airlines, specifically southwest and a others that got the money, did not lay people off, that they kept them on f

ceo of southwest airlines.oday from the new york stock exchange and, yes, next time we talk i'm sure it will be in-person. eamon and kelly, back to you on a day where southwest stock is down, but if you listen to their presentation, i mean, pretty bullish regarding their expectations for next year. >> yeah. huge hiring numbers as well. really jumped out. phil, thank you. thanks to bob as well. >>> a few stories that caught our attention. national security concerns delays a u.s. tiktok national security deal according to the "wall street journal." the government's concerns include how tiktok shares information related to video regulation algorithm lawmakers concerned. republicans in the house expected to take a close look at app ties to china. wall street already looking ahead which companies benefit from a tiktok ban in the u.s a meta, for instance, bank of america and cowen saying meta, snap and youtube could be biggest beneficiaries, eamon. >> the question what do you do examining tiktok's ties to china. we k

let's discuss this and what it means for southwest airlines and the customers. we're joined by cnn rahel solomon and marcy that represens airline crash victims. how much could this meltdown cost south west airlines? >> there are significant implications here. look at the stock today that finished lower than 5% on top of the loss yesterday of about 6% over the last week or so southwest shares are off 12%. you can see it there in terms of investors. investors not happy but in terms of the company. there is signify national exposure when you think about wolf, all of the flights that have been cancelled, 15,000 since last week, the travelers that cannot or do not want to rebook with southwest, they just want their money back and think about expensive southwest paying these people that have to man the phones, employees that have to man the phones, handle the r reservations and upgrades in terms of the technology that the company's ceo acknowledged last night. they're essentially going to have to double down. one analyst put it to me this way in terms of the impact to

website at kron 4 dot com. >> well, after days of canceling and delaying thousands of flights, southwest airlineshey are finally returning to normal operations today, according to flightaware airline only canceled 39 flights today so far cross our fingers golfers are cal martin tells us more about southwest plan to get travelers back home safe. >> well, thursday afternoon, southwest airlines announced it would be returning to a nearly normal schedule come friday. that's after thousands of flights were canceled in the past week. now, southwest airlines employees we spoke to in recent days say they are not at all surprised by this system wide failure. southwest airlines flight attendant union vice president corliss king says the airline's computer scheduling system was a disaster waiting to happen. there was a perfect storm, no pun intended combined. one historic winter storm, hundreds of thousands of holiday travelers in decades, old computer technology. we have a lot of things happening at one time. and what that did was expose the real under one issue, which is our challenges and our technology

"outfront" now, the vice president of southwest airlines pilot association. 's cnn statement. he's basically saying he's truly sorry. that is coming out on video in a bit. he also warned that the schedule will be decreased dramatically to get things back on track. for the travelers, how long could that take? they were doing things like changing where the crews are by hand? >> thanks for having me. yeah, i'm sure mr. jordan's apology is sincere. but, yet, the scheduling software can't handle the amount of changes that happened when we had the mass cancelations. and, so, they're having to reduce basically froze up, just can't do the solutions. so they're having to reduce the schedule down to where you're seeing it and trying to match up crews by hand. it's a mess, and it's a large task that our scheduling department has to try to overcome here in the next day or two to try to get this airline back on track again. >> did southwest know this could happen? did leadership know that this could happen, that their systems were simply not capable at some point -- and th

southwest airlines had this response to customer inquiries and flight crew complaints. obviously facing some operational challenges this evening with winter storm elliott that has kind of moved on to include some challenges with our flight crews being stuck in locations not where they need to be along with the aircraft. at this point, we're working to accommodate our customers as best we can and offer the most options that we can to get folks back home. one of the women we spoke to who was headed to los angeles told us she wouldn't be able to get a flight to los angeles until saturday. she told us that the bus lines were all sold out, and we were told that the rental car shops are also sold out, so people are still trying to figure out what they're going to do. and where they're going to stay into the flights resume. lamonica peters, ktvu fox. two news people heading through sfo made sure to leave plenty of time to deal with all the delays travelers taking no chances arriving before dawn for their flights. many people told us there wasn't much in their control between t

of that, southwest airlines is responsible for 87% of those. i said that wrong. 5,800 of the flights from southwest are cancelled. bags are stuck. the staff is stuck as well as the traveling public. they just want to get home. >> our luggage is missing. >> we cancelled southwest entirely and hoping for a refund. >> some people point to this business model. more blame is directed at southwest executives that neglected to upgrade communication logistics technology resulting in this meltdown. both southwest flight attendants and pilots unions says this was predictable. bob jordan offered an apology. >> the tools that we use to recover from disruption serve us well 99% of the team. clearly we need to double down on our existing plans to upgrade systems for these extreme circumstances so we never again face what is happening right now. >> the u.s. department of transportation says particularly when it comes to ticket refunds, hotel vouchers, meal vouchers, which are going to add up, that southwest airlines will be held accountable. edward? >> thanks,

cancelations. 26 delays san francisco international has 41 cancelations. 134 delays all the southwest airlines cancelations are costing passengers more than time. it's costing them a lot of money. travelers who plan to be at their destination or looking instead for hotel rooms, flights on other airlines rental cars. all those are in short supply. we talked with some travelers who were heading to different weddings. they say. whatever it costs, they have to get there, so they're trying not to think about the prices they're paying. never did the math. didn't matter. kids wedding. you gotta go. whatever it takes, so i have to say $200 to 30. maybe yeah, 1000 easily. it's obviously we were in anticipating this scene expense. but here we are. travel experts say the longer it takes for southwest to get its schedule back in on track, the more passengers will be paying for tickets on other airlines, as well as hotel rooms and rental cars. remember to hold on to all your receipts because southwest is being pressured to reimburse passengers for their expenses related to all the cancelations? film advoca

you'll see congressman call the southwest airlines leadership before congress. questions about the $50 billion that the american taxpayers gave to the airline industry including $7 billion for southwest. the vast majority of that was used for stock buybacks and not improving their operational conditions heading into this holiday season. the writing was on the wall. i think also secretary buttigieg will be called before congress to answer on that front as well. >> julie: there are a lot of questions that need to be answered from southwest, buttigieg and beyond. biden is considering if and when to launch his re-election bids. reports safe democrats are quietly urging the president to delay any announcement possibly expecting the investigations will pursue in january. they want to see how it plays out. let me show you the poll. it shows americans don't want him to run again and prefer a presidential candidate that's 20 years younger than the current 80-year-old president. a poll asks how old should the president be? 50%, 51-65. 8% have him at biden's age. colin, an

southwest airlines says they're now returning to normal operations today, according to flightaware, the airline is only canceled 39 flights. i mean, that's in comparison to the hundreds kron four's. raquel martin tells us more about southwest plan to get travelers home. >> well, thursday afternoon, southwest airlines announced it would be returning to a nearly normal schedule come friday. that's after thousands of flights were canceled in the past week. now, southwest airlines employees we spoke to in recent days say they are not at all surprised by this system wide failure. southwest airlines flight attendant union vice president corliss king says the airline's computer scheduling system was a disaster waiting to happen. there was a perfect storm, no pun intended combined. one historic winter storm, hundreds of thousands of holiday travelers in decades, old computer technology. we have a lot of things happened at one time. and what that did was expose the real under one issue, which is our challenges in our technology and our inability. >> to quickly recover. king has worked for southw

nearly 90% of those on southwest airlines. the airline now apologizing.

southwest airlines under fire and facing tough questions. the airline canceling more than 13,000 flights since last wednesday, creating long lines at airports across the country. reach their final destinatio place to g sleeping at airports during one of the busiest times for travel. and more scenes like this. a sea of unclaimed luggage. southwest has reached an unprecedented level of disruption with no end in sight. the airline saying it will work on a case by case basis to refund passengers. abc's alex perez leads us off tonight from chicago midway airport. >> reporter: tonight, southwest airlines under the microscope and facing more scrutiny. >> what this indicates is a system failure. >> reporter: transportation secretary pete buttigieg vowing to investigate what has become one of the worst airline meltdowns ever. for the third straight day, southwest canceling more than 60% of its flights. in all, more than 13,000 flights over the last week canceled. leaving passengers stranded and sleeping in airports. unclaimed luggage piling up across

respite from cold and wet weather. >> after days of canceling and delaying thousands of flights, southwest airlinesreturning to normal operations, according to flight where the airline is only canceled. 39 flights today. kron four's raquel martin tells us more about southwest plan to get travelers home. >> well, thursday afternoon, southwest airlines announced it would be returning to a nearly normal schedule come friday. that's after thousands of flights were canceled in the past week. now, southwest airlines employees we spoke to in recent days say they are not at all surprised by this system wide failure. southwest airlines flight attendant union vice president corliss king says the airline's computer scheduling system was a disaster waiting to happen. there was a perfect storm, no pun intended combined. one historic winter storm, hundreds of thousands of holiday travelers in decades, old computer technology. we have a lot of things happened at one time. and what that did was expose the real under one issue, which is our challenges in our technology and our inability. >> to quickly recover. king

>> well, tom, the airline says it will likely take days to get back on track. southwest has already flashed some 2500 flights for tomorrow. another 1200 for thursday. in fact, the airline says that it's only going to be operating for about a third of its normal schedule in the coming days. tom? >> all right, blayne alexander leading us off tonight. with more cancellations on the way and so many travelers still in limbo, when and how does this meltdown end? secretary of transportation pete buttigieg joins us now. secretary, thank you for being here. first up, southwest clearly made mistakes. what does the airline owe to thousands of passengers stranded by what their own employees have described as mismanagement and dated technology? >> well, they need to take care of their passengers and they need to take care of their employees. look, everybody understands that there is extreme weather across the country, but where most airlines saw their performance start to impr has actually moved in the other direction. you've got passengers who are stranded. you've got passengers who

the ceo of southwest airlines saying that this problem, which is unique to southwest airlines, was causedy a myriad of issues including staffing shortages, that winter storm as well as the antiquated system that the airline functions, making them susceptible to this kind of problem. passengers don't care. they just want their luggage and they want to care their clothes and get to their financial destination but they'll have to wait a little bit longer. >> and it doesn't seem like a quick fix either. nick, thank you. we'll check back in with you. >>> so the southwest flight attendant and pilots have warned the company for years about the technology that left the airline so vulnerable to a meltdown just like this. southwest pilot's association writing that more than a decade leadership short comings and safeguarding have led to disappointed passengers and millions in lost profits. the airline has not been clear about what they have done in re re recent years to update that technology. we welcome anybody to join us on the program. pete buttigieg spoke to southwest union remembers and here is

. >> tonight at 5, the southwest airlines meltdown is still crushing people's travel plans tonight for the second straight day southwest has canceled thousands of flights creating anger and chaos at airports across the country. good evening, everybody. thanks for being with us tonight on kron, 4 news at 5. i'm grant lotus and i'm vicki liviakis travelers across the country just want to go home. this is southwest airlines continues to ground their planes in a canceled thousands of flights so far today there have been some 300 southwest delays in more than 2500 cancellations. brutal. let's check on how it's affecting airports here. locally travelers. it san jose's airport are getting the worst of it. southwest canceling 147 flights there today. oakland international has had 124 southwest flights canceled today at sfo. it's better but still not good. 38 cancellations so far on this wednesday. the airline says it will only operate a 3rd of its scheduled flights over the coming days as it scrambles to get thousands of stranded passengers. >> to their destinations, employees within the compa

overnight rock slide in the north bay. >>> plus, a travel nightmare for tens of thousands of southwest airlines canceling tens of thousands of flights across the country and here in the bay area. ahead, the way the airline is responding and the changes some passengers can expect to see in the coming days. this is "today in the bay" streaming live on roku, amazon fire, apple tv and online. thanks so much for starting your morning with us. it's 5:30. i'm laura garcia. >> and i'm marcus washington. we want to get you started with the day, get right to our top story, that winter rainstorm we have going on right now. "today in the bay's" thom jensen live for us in the north bay where things are going on right now, but first we want to go to vianey arana who is monitoring the storm that continues to come in. >>> we are in the thick of it now. as you watch us at home, i don't want to drive in the storm and avoid the storm, hold off. the biggest difference heading into the afternoon, the atmospheric river you could see the plume taking direct aim right at the bay area will continue to make its trek out

a meltdown for southwest airlines.nds more flights angering travelers and forcing its ceo to apologize. >> we're doing everything we can to return to a normal operation and please also hear that i'm truly sorry. >> frustration mounts in buffalo where people are struggling to

southwest airlines expects minimal disruptions as we head into the new year's holiday weekend. the airline has canceled about 40 flights so far today after scrapping more than 13,000 since the meltdown began last thursday. southwest also vowed to reimburse stranded travelers. the biden administration has threatened to penalize the airline if it does not follow through. jarred hill is in new york. jarred, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, wendy. the secretary of transportation has threatened southwest with tens of thousands of dollars in fines per violation per affected passenger if they don't provide proper compensation for all the folks who are stranded by what many are calling a system wide meltdown for southwest. today is the first real test if they're ready to get things back on track. some passengers in dallas flashed a smile while making their way through the airport. but the misery felt by an estimated 1 million travelers whose flights were canceled or delayed this week is definitely on their minds. >> i was really considering canceling. i kept looking and it kept

captain casey is the president of southwest airlines pilot associations and a captain of southwest. >> it is been a catastrophic failure. our processes, i.t., infrastructure was not there to support the operation. unfortunately our customers are bearing the brunt. >> unlike other airlines that use a hub and spoke system southwest flies point-to-point. >> we have pilots and flight attendants who do not have hotels, who they truly just do not know where they are. >> kingsbury heard that firsthand. bonnie's bahamas vacation was also canceled. >> i was not stranded in austin, that would be a worse situation. >> stranded passengers at oakland have few options when it comes to their bags. >> announcements on the flight speaker that if your flight was canceled, it is going to be a one and a half to two and a half hour wait just to get your luggage off the flight. >> we just decided to leave her bag there and that we would pick it up later today when things calmed down. >> it's not clear when that will be. captain murray says he expects this to go on for days. >> this will continue until ther

canceled by southwest airlines. the next one spirit airlines cancelled 83. so you can see this airline has a big problem all over by monday night around 5000 flights were cancelled. that is a massive amount. the problem here is not just for passengers want to go home. some are waiting for 5 days for the last 5 days to actually get where they actually wanted. then they turned around. just wanted to go home and they are still not home . never let alone have seen their relative, so it is an absolute nightmare all over. and it's not going to get any better, at least not for southware southwest, they said it's going to be like this a few more days. so that bad news for travelers and from stephane simon's in washington, let's get a round up of some of the other headlines now. and the co leader of the plot to kidnap michigan. the governor gretchen whitman, has been sentenced to 16 years in prison. prosecutors described adam fox as the mastermind of the plan to abduct whitman at gunpoint ahead of the 2020 presidential elect

the recovery from the historic storm continues and the death toll climbs to at least 65 >>> southwest airlines facing heavy turbulence as thousands of passengers fell victim to over 70% flight cancelations. will southwest pay millions in restitution? >>> our kristin dalgren takes us inside fight against medical misinformation in children what you need to know. >>> migrants at the southern border fighting bitter cold as the smoeft upholds title 42's covid restrictions where do they go from here >>> our tom llamas with the story of strangers surviving this historic snowstorm, leaning on one another and forging lifelong friendships "early today" starts right now good wednesday morning i'm philip mena. >>> the death toll is rising from the ongoing extreme winter weather blanketing swaths of the u.s. at least 65 people are now known to have died across 14 states. that's according to an nbc news tally. the worst-hit state by far is new york with 34 fatalities. the executive of erie county in the north made this plea to recess d residents earlier. >> please, please, please do not drive in the city of

, thursday afternoon, southwest airlines announced it would be returning to a nearly normal schedulee friday. that's after thousands of flights were canceled in the past week. now, southwest airlines employees we spoke to in recent days say they are not at all surprised by this system wide failure. southwest airlines flight attendant union vice president corliss king says the airline's computer scheduling system was a disaster waiting to happen. there was a perfect storm, no pun intended combined. one historic winter storm, hundreds of thousands of holiday travelers in decades, old computer technology. we have a lot of things happened at one time. and what that did was expose the real under one issue, which is our challenges in our technology and our inability. >> to quickly recover. king has worked for southwest airlines for 12 years and says employees have long warned company executives about the flaws and their employee scheduling system. she says the exact just didn't listen. we're the first people to know when the operation on paper but we do not necessarily have a seat at the t

the southwest airlines meltdown. the majority of their flights canceled, stranding thousands trying to get home after the holidays. the airline scrambling to fix mounting problems, but the nightmare is expected to continue for days. long lines of weary passengers, bags piling up across the country. desperation piling up, too. now the department of transportation says it will investigate the airline and how this happened. what the ceo is saying tonight. we have team coverage. alex perez in chicago, mola lenghi in denver. >>> the death toll rises in buffalo. days after the so-called storm of the century, first responders from nearby states and military police heading to upstate new york to help. state troopers now using tactical gear to clear cars from congested roads. the region tonight bracing for a warmup and the big melt. with widespread rain heading east in the next few days. flooding already along the west coast. higher elevations expecting more than two feet of snow. mona kosar abdi in buffalo. meteorologist rob