A large number of flights across Florida were canceled by Southwest Airlines on Saturday, citing bad weather. Flights canceled include those from the Tampa International Airport, as air traffic control issues were reported due to northern Florida’s bad weather.
According to NewsBreak, an air traffic management program was brought in by the Federal Aviation Administration, and this grounded Southwest flights on Friday. After the flights had to be grounded on Friday, the Saturday schedule was also disrupted.
The report pointed out that flights were canceled late into Saturday night too. The Tampa International Airport’s website had listed the flights as canceled. Air traffic control issues had been attributed as the reason for the cancellations, and South West Airlines quickly tweeted this as a statement for public knowledge.
Southwest Airlines Striving to Accommodate Affected Flyers
The airline is reportedly making all efforts to accommodate flyers which the unforeseen cancellations had impacted. As flight cancellation information began to increase, many passengers too took to Twitter to share their experiences.
While some said the cancellation had forced them to miss out on the KISS concert scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at the MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre, a travel reporter wrote that her flight to Tampa was canceled within the 90 minutes she booked it.
Long Lines at Tampa International Airport
With Southwest Airlines making all efforts to get a rescheduling of flights in place, Tampa International Airport witnessed long queues.
Significantly, the bad weather dawned on Florida all of a sudden and thus had sent all flight schedules for a toss. With disarray ruling the Tampa airport, flyers who had booked their tickets had been left with no option but to wait for a favorable decision from the Federal Aviation Administration.
Tampa International Airport boasts more than 20 major air carrier airlines, four regional airlines, and three air cargo carriers. Southwest Airlines has the airport’s largest share of passengers, operating up to 121 daily flights.
