If You’re Scheduled To Fly Out of Kansas City on Southwest Today, Good Luck!

Update: On Wednesday, December 28, 2022, Southwest Airlines continued to have problems flying out of KCI. 36 flights leaving from KCI were canceled throughout the day by mid-afternoon, and 36 flights scheduled to land at KCI from cities like Chicago, Pheonix, Denver, Atlanta, Washington DC, Nashville, Dallas, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, and Tampa were also canceled. You can check Southwest Airlines arrivals and departures on the Fly KCI website. 

If you're planning a post-Christmas getaway to somewhere else and flying Southwest Airlines out of Kansas City today, Tuesday, December 27, 2022,  there's a good chance you won't get any further than the parking lot. In fact, you might want to just stay home or make it a road trip instead.

According to the Fly KCI website fight information page, Southwest Airlines has canceled a majority of their flights out of KCI for today. Heading to Dallas, Chicago,  Denver, Los Angeles, Orlando, Nashville, Phoenix, or New York. Forget about it. There's a good chance it won't happen.

Southwest does have one flight to Phoenix leaving at 10:25 this morning. As well as flights to Nashville and Denver (one each) scheduled for this afternoon. Tonight, there's a flight going to Atlanta and then on to Tampa, as well as a 9:20 PM flight to Vegas. Heck, if that flight departs on time and you're on it. Go directly to the tables when you reach Vegas and try your luck.

Your luck is a little better if you have out-of-town guests flying into Kansas City on Southwest Airlines today. As of this writing, the Fly KCI website flight information page shows no arrivals as canceled as of 9:30 AM CST.

This makes sense to me because Southwest Airlines says the winter storm we experienced a few days ago left equipment and personnel out of position which has hampered the airline's ability to serve customers. In order to get both staff and equipment in place, Southwest needs to get both into town, and no better way to do that than by having flights INTO town.

Fox 4 cites the Wall Street Journal for a quote from Southwest CEO Bob Jordan acknowledging Monday's difficult day, and admitting that today, Tuesday, December 27, 2022, would probably be another difficult day for his airline. Fox 4 reports that Jordan told the Wall Street Journal, “This is the largest scale event that I’ve ever seen.”

According to their website, Southwest Airlines says customers with travel booked through January 2, 2023, can rebook in the original class of service or travel standby between their ticketed city pairs within 14 days of their original travel date without incurring additional charges. Additionally, the airline is offering refunds to those whose flights have been canceled.