ST. LOUIS — Southwest Airlines passengers have had a rough week due to flight cancellations and baggage issues, but the situation looked less chaotic Thursday morning at St. Louis Lambert International Airport's Terminal 2.
Hundreds of pieces of leftover luggage, seen just hours before, were missing from the luggage carousel at Terminal 2. Southwest passengers, however, told 5 On Your Side the bags had simply been moved.
The pieces of luggage had been stacked up side-by-side over the last several days after Southwest had to cancel thousands of flights nationwide. Southwest staff at Lambert said, as of Wednesday afternoon, roughly 7,000 bags were at an airport warehouse and 3,000 bags were actually with the airline.
Jonathan Morford was waiting outside the St. Louis airport's Southwest office before daylight Thursday.
“Southwest Airlines let me know they are staging the luggage at their cargo area, here at Lambert, due to the volume of bags they have," Morford said. "It’s a lot of bags. I talked to the baggage office a couple of days ago, and they assured me the luggage never left here. Mine is marked to stay here, and they are going through and contacting folks as they can.”
FlightAware reported more than 2,300 Southwest flights - or 58% of the airline's flights nationwide - were listed as canceled Thursday morning.
Southwest officials said they were "fully staffed and prepared" heading into the holiday weekend, but severe weather forced operational changes from which it has struggled to recover.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said thousands more canceled flights indicate a system failure that goes beyond weather-related issues. He and other federal lawmakers, including President Joe Biden, are promising to investigate the Southwest meltdown.
Other major carriers, including American, United and Delta, have announced they will institute price caps — particularly in cities where Southwest operates — to limit the financial burden on stranded flyers.
Despite the caps on fare prices, Google flight information showed airfare remained sky-high Thursday.
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