BALTIMORE — More than 180 Southwest flights headed to Central Florida were proactively canceled ahead of Saturday due to inclement weather and airspace congestion.
According to Southwest Airlines, lightning storms also caused ramp operations at Florida airports to be repeatedly paused, causing additional delays.
A spokesperson for the airline said, "We have all hands-on deck to get delayed customers and their bags onto available flights, and we’re sharing additional guidance and wide flexibility to self-serve travel changes."
By Saturday’s end, approximately 600 flights out of the 3,600 scheduled departures were canceled, nearly all cited for weather and airspace management programs.
"We’ve planned for, and already are well into, a much better operational environment today, Sunday, compared to the weather and air traffic conditions we, our customers, and passengers of other carriers experienced on Saturday afternoon and evening."
As a result of Saturday's difficulties, preemptive measures were taken. 400 flights were canceled Sunday due to aircraft and staff that were not in their planned positions.
According to the airline, as of noon, no additional delays have been announced. Southwest Airlines has more than 3,600 published flights scheduled for Sunday.
