dblumenhoff

That's half true. Let's imagine a mythical airport with hub airline Alpha, and smaller carriers Bravo and Charlie. Here is the regular flight schedule (flights are in 5 minute intervals, I just didn't fill out the times due to laziness):

Alpha 1 09:00
Alpha 2 09:05
Alpha 3
Bravo 1
Alpha 4
Alpha 5
Charlie 1
Alpha 6
Alpha 7
Bravo 2
Alpha 8
Alpha 9 09:55

It's a bad weather day, and the airport can now only take one plane every 10 minutes instead of 5. The FAA assigns new slots to each of those flights at 10 minute intervals. Alpha 2 is now at 09:10 and Alpha 9 is at 10:50. Alpha airlines decides that Alpha 3 is a small regional flight and cancels it in order to get Alpha 4, the 747 from Heathrow, to arrive on time by taking Alpha 3's slot. Charlie, which only has 1 flight a day, doesn't have such options and just needs to eat the delay. Bravo 1 takes the delay, but Bravo 2 would get in way too late and they just cancel.

This is (an obviously oversimplified version of) how it works IRL. The FAA doesn't prioritize large aircraft, the airport doesn't get to decide that their favorite airline gets to come in, but an airline at a hub does have more flexibility to minimize disruptions to the greatest number of travelers by canceling strategically. An airline for whom it is an outstation doesn't have that flexibility, so if often has the appearance of favoring the hub airline, and airlines will always prioritize the profitable larger aircraft over RJs.

NextTrip

And what I was trying to give was a much more simplified version of your example for the OP. I didn't say an airport decides their "favorite" airline gets to fly, just that DL has the majority of the flights out of MSP. I didn't figure OP needed such a long explanation.

LegalTender

Specifically:

NoStressHere

FYI - Skywest on the top of the list from last post is a contract carrier for Delta.

LegalTender

Made reasonably clear in post 30.

SpiceMSP

Yes, I did need a bit more clarification on everything on how flight Ops, and how specific airlines operate during IRROPS. The scenarios you guys described have been super helpful in what can go on behind the scenes. And I would say mirrors pretty well with what happened at MSP that day, with, in addition to SW, the rest of the cancellations were all regionals.

I just saw them cancel 7 hours out and later saw my planned flight land in BNA from FLL and get sent to Baltimore instead of taking me home. So I was just like ...? Delta wouldn't do this to a customer. Now I have a much better understanding why. Still I'm staying away from SW when I can, but I have a better understanding on their flight Ops at least out of MSP. SW could prolly handle delays much better from a hub on bad weather days, but an inbound to MSP on a shitshow of a day is going to lose them money with a long delay. And for the passenger, your rolling the dice more with a possible cancellation.

NoStressHere

Oh really? You expect us to actually read and comprehend and remember every single post here. After all, some of us are degenerates with no chance of retrieving such trivia from an earlier post.


ALERT - Sarcasm now turned off.

oreocookies

I have a friend who says in her experience Southwest flights are always delayed or have issues. My experience has been the opposite, where I rarely have delays or issues but have more delays with other airlines.

Personally, I'm fine with an airline canceling flights in bad weather if it means they are being extra cautious and prioritizing safety. It's not ideal to have a canceled flight but better than taking risks.