Southwest faces storm of criticism over holiday chaos

More than 10,000 flights cancelled over the Christmas holiday, chaos at airports across America: Southwest Airlines found itself in the hot seat Tuesday as the airline behind the lion's share of the weather-linked travel mayhem. The Dallas-based, domestic-focused carrier, which has historically enjoyed a strong reputation with consumers, drew withering expletive-filled rebukes on social media, where labor leaders also highlighted horror stories from stranded airline employees. "It's a complete meltdown," said Mike Sage, who had planned to fly back to Florida on Monday after visiting Connecticut to tend to his kayaking business. After Southwest's phone and Internet system "collapsed," Sage drove to the airport, waited in line for two hours and finally obtained a replacement ticket for Saturday from Southwest. But it came with a warning, Sage recounted to AFP. "When (the attendant) handed me the ticket, she looked me in the eyes and said: 'If I were you, I would not count on this flight either. I would book with another airline. We have crews stranded all over, pilots sleeping on the floor in airports.'" At issue is Southwest's performance in the wake of a brutal winter storm that began ahead of Christmas, wreaking havoc with holiday travel networks and causing some 50 fatalities. But while operations had largely returned to normal at American Airlines and United Airlines by Tuesday, Southwest canceled more than 2,500 flights, or nearly two-thirds of planned departures, according to tracking website FlightAware. That's on top of some 8,150 flights canceled over the prior five-day stretch, according to the website.<br/>