As Southwest flight cancellations continue, Buttigieg vows to hold airline

(CNN) — Relief is still a few days away for passengers booked with Southwest Airlines this week, as the beleaguered airline continues to grapple with what US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has referred to as a complete meltdown of the system.

Airports most affected by the Wednesday cancellations are Denver International, followed by Chicago Midway International, Baltimore/Washington International, Dallas Love Field, Nashville International, Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas and Phoenix Sky Harbor International.

Buttigieg says he spoke directly to Southwest CEO Bob Jordan on Tuesday about the thousands of flights that have been canceled this week with no immediate indication of when passengers can rebook.

“Their system really has completely melted down,” Buttigieg told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Tuesday.

“I made clear that our department will be holding them accountable for their responsibilities to customers, both to get them through this situation and to make sure that this can’t happen again.”

Tuesday at a glance

More than 3,200 flights within, into or out of the United States were canceled on Tuesday, according to FlightAware.

Of those canceled flights, some 2,693 were those of Southwest — a stunning 84% of all canceled flights in the United States.

Long lines of travelers attempting to rebook or make connections were witnessed at Southwest ticket counters at multiple US airports on Tuesday, while huge piles of unclaimed bags continued to grow as passengers struggled to reclaim their luggage in airports including Chicago’s Midway International, Harry Reid in Las Vegas and William P. Hobby Airport in Houston.

Passenger Trisha Jones told CNN at the airport in Atlanta that she and her partner had been traveling for five days, trying to get home to Wichita, Kansas, after disembarking from a cruise at Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

After her flight out was canceled, she stayed with relatives, then rerouted to Atlanta to pick up a connecting flight.

“We were fortunate, because we were in Fort Lauderdale — my family lives in the Tampa bay area so we were able to rent a car to go see my family for Christmas,” Jones said. “We’ve seen a lot of families who are sleeping on the floor, and it just breaks my heart.”

Buttigieg: ‘A lot of cleaning up to do’

Cancelled Southwest Airlines flights are displayed on an information board at California’s Oakland International Airport on Tuesday.

Bloomberg/Bloomberg/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Southwest has blamed the travel disaster on several factors, including winter storm delays, aggressive flight scheduling and outdated infrastructure.

“From what I can tell, Southwest is unable to locate even where their own crews are, let alone their own passengers, let alone baggage,” said Buttigieg, adding that he also spoke with leaders of the airline’s unions representing flight attendants and pilots.

The secretary said he told CEO Jordan that he expects Southwest to proactively offer refunds and expense reimbursement to affected passengers without them having to ask.

“I conveyed to the CEO our expectation that they going to go above and beyond to take care of passengers and to address this,” he said.

Buttigieg told CNN the Department of Transportation is prepared to pursue fines against Southwest if there is evidence that the company has failed to meet its legal obligations, but he added that the department will be taking a closer look at consistent customer service problems at the airline.

“While all of the other parts of the aviation system have been moving toward recovery and getting better each day, it’s actually been moving the opposite direction with this airline,” said Buttigieg.

“You’ve got a company here that’s got a lot of cleaning up to do,” he said.

Southwest CEO issues video apology

“We’re doing everything we can to return to a normal operation, and please also hear that I am truly sorry,” Jordan said.

While Jordan acknowledged problems with the company response, the statement suggested that he did not foresee massive changes to Southwest’s procedures in response to the mass cancellations.

“The tools we use to recover from disruption serve us well 99% of the time, but clearly we need to double-down on our already-existing plans to upgrade systems for these extreme circumstances so that we never again face what’s happening right now,” said Jordan.

“We’re optimistic to…