BOISE, Idaho — There is no definitive end in sight for the airline chaos that has been seen around the country this week as Southwest airlines said their service would be reduced for several days.
"We have made the decision to continue operating a reduced schedule by flying roughly one-third of our schedule for the next several days," The airline said in a statement Tuesday.
The impacts of this nationwide flight shortage have reached the Treasure Valley as 25 Southwest flights were canceled on Tuesday alone. According to flightaware.com, only one non-Southwest flight was canceled on Tuesday.
“We got out here and had a great holiday," said Tim Reinhart, a traveler who had his family's flight canceled. "And now all try to get home in different directions and now the flight’s canceled.”
Reinhart and his family were given a refund but were not given the option to rebook with Southwest. They will now be flying a different airline back.
With the number of cancellations in the air, some people are taking their trips into their own hands.
Mark Hayward would have been stuck in Boise for six extra days, but he was able to secure a rental car. He now has to drive back to Wisconsin in a couple of days, a trip that will take him 25 hours to complete.
The chaos is making him rethink his travel choices.
“I’m probably going to take a little time off from Southwest," Hayward said.
"Up to this point they were my favorite airline, but they obviously have a lot of stuff they have to figure out. So, I’m going to be looking at other airlines in the future.”
