Travelers at Las Vegas airport frustrated by lack of communication during flight delays, cancellations

LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) - Holiday travelers have many stories to tell as thousands of people in the U.S. are impacted by a domino effect of flight delays or cancellations, amid severe weather.

Two groups of people trying to get back home to New Orleans after a trip to Las Vegas say they were told by their airline the quickest they could get them home was Thursday or Friday of this week. They told FOX5 there were some other flights available on other airlines but were more than a thousand dollars each.

A couple that drove to Las Vegas from Utah Monday morning to catch a six a.m. flight to Houston, Texas said that flight, and other one several hours later were both cancelled and the next flight they were told they could catch wasn’t leaving until Friday, December 30. They said they were considering driving back to Utah and cancelling their trip to Texas.

Others we talked to said they were frustrated by a lack of communication from their airline on what to do after a flight was canceled and weren’t getting information on future flights to get to their destination.

Southwest Airlines responded to FOX5 for comment.

“And our heartfelt apologies for this are just beginning,” read part of the statement.

Officials added, “We’re working with Safety at the forefront to urgently address wide-scale disruption by rebalancing the airline and repositioning Crews and our fleet ultimately to best serve all who plan to travel with us…We were fully staffed and prepared for the approaching holiday weekend when the severe weather swept across the continent, where Southwest is the largest carrier in 23 of the top 25 travel markets in the U.S. These operational conditions forced daily changes to our flight schedule at a volume and magnitude that still has the tools our teams use to recover the airline operating at capacity.”

The airline also said its employees and crews scheduled to work this holiday season showed up in every single way, and the airline is “beyond grateful for that.”

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