Southwest Airlines ended up canceling more than 16,000 flights over a 10-day period last December. A major blizzard snarled travel across the U.S. But as other airlines recovered, Southwest suffered a series of technical setbacks that led to a wave of delays and cancellations.

The "Southwest Meltdown" refers to a massive operational failure during the 2022 holiday season, specifically between December 21 and December 30. While a severe winter storm initially disrupted flights across the U.S., most airlines recovered within days; however, Southwest Airlines collapsed, canceling more than 16,700 flights and leaving over two million passengers stranded. The crisis was blamed on "technical debt"—specifically, an antiquated crew-scheduling software system that could not keep track of pilots and flight attendants once they were displaced by weather. Because Southwest uses a "point-to-point" route model instead of a "hub-and-spoke" system, the disruptions cascaded through the entire network. The meltdown resulted in nearly $800 million in lost revenue and a record $140 million civil penalty from the Department of Transportation. It serves as a cautionary tale for the aviation industry on the critical importance of modernizing IT infrastructure to handle large-scale weather disruptions.