Southwest Airlines slashes flights in and out of Myrtle Beach, amid an operational ‘meltdown’

Five departing Southwest flights and five arriving flights out of Myrtle Beach International Airport, MYR, have been canceled as of Wednesday morning, according to the airport’s website.

This comes after about a dozen flights in and out the Myrtle Beach airport were canceled on Tuesday.

Across the U.S., about 4,406 flights have been canceled as of Wednesday morning according to flight tracking website Flightaware. About 2,500 of those were Southwest flights, nearly 62% of all of the airline’s total flights today.

These cancellations come amid a massive winter storm that dumped multiple inches of snow across the U.S. and gave Myrtle Beach it’s second coldest Christmas on record.

Here are the canceled flights out of MYR on Wednesday.

MYR canceled arrivals

Southwest Airlines - Flight 3168 from Baltimore 1:20 p.m.

Southwest Airlines - Flight 1795 from Chicago (MDW) 4:20 p.m.

Southwest Airlines - Flight 950 from Nashville 7:30 p.m.

Southwest Airlines - Flight 2158 from Baltimore 9:05 a.m.

MYR canceled departures

Southwest Airlines - Flight 2265 to Chicago (MDW) 1 p.m.

Southwest Airlines - Flight 3161 to Baltimore (BWI) 2:10 p.m.

Southwest Airlines - 5675 to Nashville (BNA) 4:50 p.m.

Southwest Airlines - Flight 950 to Baltimore (BWI) 8:10 p.m.

Southwest Airlines - Flight 2158 to Nashville (BNA) 9:40 a.m.

Airports affected the most by cancellations include Denver International, and Chicago Midway International.

The operational failures have put the Dallas-based company under scrutiny from the U.S. Department of Transportation, whose secretary Pete Buttigeig said would be investigating the “meltdown,” according to a CNN article.

It’s unclear how the company will handle refunds and re-bookings nationwide, but CEO Bob Jordan told the Wall Street Journal that more cancellations were on the way, at least through Thursday.

Sol Negron, 30, said they had two flight cancellations back to back from Southwest and is now making the nearly 18-hour drive from Myrtle Beach to their home in Kansas City, MO.

Negron said they had always chosen Southwest, but the airline’s cancellations were a “great reminder” not to fly with them in the winter.

“I’m going to continue to fly Southwest,” Negron said. “I just am not going to fly Southwest in the winter because they do so bad with winter flights.”

This story was originally published December 28, 2022 at 12:12 PM.