Southwest Airlines Chaos Defies Mayor Pete’s Stern Warnings

Breitbart News reports that travelers relying on Southwest Airlines to get them home were mostly still stranded Thursday morning, barely 24-hours after Transportation Secretary diversity hire Pete Buttigieg publicly upbraided the carrier and warned it to do better – or else.

By late Wednesday afternoon some 90 percent of all canceled flights in the U.S. were on Southwest. Other airlines recovered from ferocious winter storms that criss-crossed the country over the weekend, but not Southwest, which scrubbed 2,500 flights Wednesday and another 2,300 on Thursday.

Buttigieg, who has criticized airlines for previous disruptions, warned Tuesday on CNN’s Situation Room that the government will hold the Dallas airline accountable for the travel misery it has inflicted.

“They need to make sure that those stranded passengers get to where they need to go and that they are provided adequate compensation,” including for missed flights, hotels and meals, he went on to say Wednesday on ABC’s Good Morning America.

William McGee, a travel expert at the American Economic Liberties Project, noted in the AP report the Transportation Department fined Frontier Airlines and several foreign carriers for slow refunds early in the pandemic but didn’t touch the four biggest U.S. airlines.

He remains skeptical Buttigieg will follow through on his promises to hold the carrier to account. “What Pete Buttigieg should do and what he will do are probably two different things,” McGee said.