SAN DIEGO — Thousands of Southwest Airlines passengers remained stranded Tuesday across Southern California as the airline's winter woes worsened, leading to canceled and delayed flights throughout the nation.
Stranded passengers were left with few alternatives, with the Southwest Airlines' website listing all flights departing from Southern California as "unavailable" through Saturday.
Many travelers opted to hit the roads instead by renting a car, but even that proved to be a challenge.
"I think its ridiculous. I understand if it was maybe weather issue, but there’s nothing going on in the southwest so I don’t see why we couldn’t get on flight," said Paige Cardona, who decided to a rent a car instead.
Cardona is one of the many who is now waiting to find a rental car to make the 12 hour drive back to El Paso.
In a statement to CBS 8, a Hertz spokesperson said:
“While the holiday season is always a busy one for Hertz, we are seeing a surge in demand for car rentals across the country and in San Diego due to severe weather impacts and widespread flight cancellations."
"On Monday, our U.S. Contact Center experienced record call volume and we continue to see sustained demand for bookings, reservation modifications and one-way rentals. From our frontline operations teams to our social customer care agents, Hertz employees are diligently working to serve those whose travel plans have been disrupted to get them on the road as quickly as possible.”
Some flights were still departing from San Diego, Los Angeles International Airport, John Wayne Airport in Orange County, Hollywood Burbank Airport and Long Beach Airport, but passengers were being urged to check flight schedules.
The airline issued an apology to stranded holiday travelers, stating that its operational challenges stem from last week's historic winter storm.
"With consecutive days of extreme winter weather across our network behind us, continuing challenges are impacting our customers and employees in a significant way that is unacceptable," according to a Southwest statement. "We are working with safety at the forefront to urgently address wide-scale disruption ... And our heartfelt apologies for this are just beginning."
On Monday, Southwest canceled more than 2,900 flights across the country, or about 70% of its scheduled total, according to FlightAware. By 6 a.m. Tuesday, Southwest canceled more than 2,500 more flights, which accounted for at least 60% of its schedule.
The airline's CEO, Bob Jordan, told the Wall Street Journal that Southwest was planning to fly about one-third of its schedule Tuesday as it worked to catch up from the massive delays. Although the airline has continued to blame winter weather for the problems, some industry watchers have suggested that aging scheduling software played a major role in the delays.
Officials with the U.S. Department of Transportation issued a statement calling the Southwest situation "unacceptable."
"USDOT is concerned by Southwest's unacceptable rate of cancellations and delays and reports of lack of prompt customer service," the department stated. "The department will examine whether cancellations were controllable and if Southwest is complying with its customer service plan."
"They need to take care of their passengers and their employees given what's happened across our system these last days," said US Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who is calling for an investigation into Southwest.
"What we're seeing right now from the system and the flights themselves to the inability to reach anybody on a customer service phone line is just completely unacceptable," Buttigieg added.
Southwest Airlines said it was fully staffed late last week and prepared for the approaching Christmas weekend when severe weather swept across the continent.
"We're working with safety at the forefront to urgently address wide- scale disruption," airline officials stated.
"On the other side of this, we'll work to make things right for those we've let down," the airline stated.
Now, many of stranded travelers are prolonging their stay in town, filling up hotels across San Diego.
"We’re booked up tonight, we were booked up the past two nights. Lot of people coming in that need a place to stay," said Vincente Franco, front desk manager at Urban Boutique Hotel.
Tuesday, the CEO of Southwest Airlines apologized to both passengers and employees.
"Please also hear that I am truly sorry," Bob Jordan said. "We're doing everything we can to return to our normal operation."
Jordan also said that that Southwest plans to fly a reduced schedule over the next few days, and are optimistic they'll be "back on track" before next week, adding "the past few days will not be part of our future."
Impacted travelers can find more information at southwest.com/traveldisruption.
WATCH RELATED: Luggage everywhere! Food court becomes makeshift baggage claim area at San Diego airport