PHOENIX — Phoenix members of Arizona’s congressional delegation want answers after Southwest Airlines canceled thousands of flights over the last several days.
On Monday, Southwest employees told waiting customers that 90% of the airline’s flights from Sky Harbor were canceled, and there was no space on future flights for the next four days.
“There has been a massive breach of trust with the American consumer, the American flying public,” Rep Greg Stanton said.
“It’s not going to be good enough to refund their tickets,” Rep Ruben Gallego said.
Both congressmen sent letters to demand answers from Southwest after the widespread cancellations.
Many potential passengers left stranded had to spend hundreds of dollars. Customers told 12News, there was no promise of a refund.
“No refund, no rental car, no nothing. Try to book another flight is all they told me,” Jessica, a passenger, said Monday.
“I'm demanding we hold investigations ourselves and bring the CEO of southwest before our committee to answer what the heck happened,” Rep. Stanton said.
Stanton works on the house transportation and infrastructure committee. He is a member of the aviation subcommittee.
Stanton wants the house to do its own investigation to get answers. The U.S. Department of Transportation said it would examine what went wrong and if Southwest has followed proper policy.
Stanton said there might be opportunities to change protections for passengers next year, as it will be time for FAA reauthorization.
“This is our opportunity as congress,” Stanton said, “Our opportunity to say this is what the American people expect with this industry.“
In the past, the Department of Transportation’s biggest fines for airline issues has come under 10 million bucks. The major airlines are all valued at more than a billion dollars.
Stanton: There should be a much more significant fine structure in place
“If we don’t put some type of stick to this, you are going to have airlines do this again,” Gallego said.
Stanton hopes future changes and potential investigations will force all the airlines to take better care of passengers.
“We need to take the appropriate steps to make sure this does not happen again.”
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