OzzyOzzie

Assuming that is true, can WN claim that as a weather related cancellation then?

steved5480

@SouthwestAir Due to the inclement weather, we are running low on deicing fluid. We appreciate your patience and flexibility as we navigate through these challenges. ^CT
2:19 PM - 11 Feb 2018

OzzyOzzie

Well dang! Talk about getting caught off guard.

LegalTender

Points for honesty. Chicago Business Journal traces MDW issues to GK:

Southwest Airlines could be in for a rough winter at Midway Airport

JustDandy

Somehow managed to barely dodge this bullet as well with MDW. Left last night on the very last flight back towards home. When I originally booked the flights about a month or so ago, I had picked one on 2/11 but later changed it to 2/10. Guess I got lucky with that one too, or else I'd be sitting in MDW right now kind of stranded.

DonnieZ

This is absolute crap.

I was booked on WN MDW -> LAS today at 9:35A and that was cancelled last night (Saturday) due to "Weather" reasons - but the non-stops both before that and after that were not cancelled. I got on the phone and got on the next available flight, which was the 1:35P. Cancelled as I pulled up to the airport.

This is not a weather problem. This is not a force majure issue. This is a WN poor planning problem - and all flyers who were put out should be compensated as such. You can preface your statement with "Due to weather issues, we have ran out of de-icing fluid." but that's not a weather issue. Flights out of ORD were running fairly well, and if WN knew that they were low on deicing fluid, they could have made this decision much further in advance.

Missed a concert I have had booked in LAS for months - I am not happy with WN right now.

steved5480

Southwest Airlines runs out of de-icer, cancels all flights from Midway - Chicago Tribune

And then there's this:

https://www.swamedia.com/releases/re...und-operations

wildcat1313

My daughter was at an event in Chicago and she was scheduled to fly today morning from MDW at 8.00 am but her flight got canceled. Re-booked her for afternoon flight that got canceled, then at 5.45pm and 10.45 pm which got canceled too. Booked her for next morning and those 2 flights got canceled too. So eventually gave up and booked a full price ticket from ORD for 7.45pm as she has 2 classes and a test that she cannot miss. Out almost 500$ and endless amount of stress. No de-icer? Can't they plan for bad weather scenarios?
Question is am I entitled to any compensation or am I fighting a lost cause?

toomanybooks

Snow in Chicagoland in the winter. Who knew?

Hey, WN, there might be thunderstorms and hot humid weather here in the summer. Maybe.

mke9499

Meanwhile, about 100 miles to the north at MKE, there were no WN cancellations today and very few delays. Many flights even departed early. Though there were not nearly as many WN scheduled departures as at MDW, the Saturday/Sunday weather conditions were very similar.

ursine1

"Weather."

Classic.

DCP2016

LOL, and people talk about how terrible ORD is. In a case like this, I'd take my chances with UA or AA over at ORD than deal with WN at MDW on days like this.

Texas Booster

FWIW, I flew into DFW from Heathrow yesterday and the pilots had us fly way north to avoid strong winds and the jet stream.

Over Scotland, the Faroe Islands, northern part of Iceland, Greenland and over Hudson Bay until we shot almost straight south to DFW. I have not been that far north on a trans-Atlantic flight before.

And it was snow, snow and more snow all the way down to KS or OK. Not much vehicle traffic even for a Sunday.

Southwest should have planned better in the few days before the storm hit. It's not like they don't have access to the airport ...

So was it a problem with logistics planning and storage, or with with logistics planning and transportation of deicer, or were their suppliers unable to provide a hot shot delivery? Is deicer a pipeline product like Jet-A or is it provided by lots of trucks?

At other airports I thought this was an airport issue to provide deicing, not a carrier issue. Is MDW different?

toomanybooks

OPNLguy

Generally speaking there are multiple types of glycol-based de-icing fluids, Type-1, Type-2, and Type-4, and they are delivered to the airport via tanker truck. On a yearly basis, they are not used often enough to support a ROI to construct, have them delivered by pipeline, and again, it's not like there's a single type of fluid to run through a single pipeline.

The big variable as far on how the various fluids are used (how fast supplies are depleted) is the type of frozen precip that is falling, as well as the rate it's falling, and those can change quickly, and repeatedly. Snow is one thing, but freezing rain and/or freezing drizzle is another. Deicing an aircraft that has ice on it will take a buttload more gallons of fluid than if it was just snow. If the type/intensity of precip is one one that prohibits aircraft operation (like moderate or heavy freezing drizzle, or moderate or heavy freezing rain) then overall delays increase, and thus any aircraft already de-iced can then exceed published fluid holdover times with an additional de-icing needed. Likewise if the visibility drops below takeoff minimums and backs up the flights awaiting departure.

As I have mentioned in previous posts, there are lots of variables in airline ops, but especially all the more so during the winter time.