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Following an icy situation, Southwest is expecting Monday operations to return to “close to normal.” Sunday’s winter weather in Chicago forced Southwest Airlines to cancel all of its flights out of Midway Airport (MDW), as the carrier reportedly ran out of deicing fluid.
In a statement, the carrier said that the weather in the Chicago area was so bad that it forced it to cancel the flights: “Throughout the storms, we’ve actively worked to manage our glycol levels (used to deice aircraft) but due to the severity of the winter weather Southwest has proactively canceled about 220 flights as of midday Sunday.”
Since the carrier had to use so much deicing fluid, it ended up running out — prompting the mass cancellation.
Due to having to deice many of our aircraft because of the weather, we are running low on deicing fluid. Safety will remain our top priority in this circumstance. Please reach out to our Team or Reservations Agents to get rebooked just as soon as possible. ^AB
Since Sunday’s shutdown, Southwest has reportedly received replacement deicing fluid — enough to resume MDW operations close to normal. However, a FlightRadar24 search shows that 53% of MDW departures have been delayed on Monday — at least 30 of which are Southwest-operated.
If you’re traveling through MDW with Southwest on Monday, it’ll be best to check the status of your flight before heading to the airport.
Sunday’s weather-related issue wasn’t the first time that Southwest has faced de-icing problems. In late 2017, Southwest canceled more than 90 flights because of de-icing delays.
H/T: Chicago Tribune
Source: thepointsguy.com