Winter Storm Leads Southwest Airlines to Cancel Flights At Midway; Passengers Left Stranded on the Tarmac for Hours

Southwest Airlines cancelled several flights due to the heavy winter storm. Over 130 flights have been cancelled at Midway International Airport including all flights through noon, CBS Local reported Friday.

Southwest Airlines move to cancel the flights left hundreds of passengers sitting on planes stuck on the tarmac for as long as four hours overnight.

According to a report by CBS 2's Susanna Song, at least 10 Southwest flights at Midway were requested to wait on the tarmac following their safe landing Thursday night. This is because many departing flights were unable to take off on their scheduled time; hence, arriving flights could not be accommodated by the airport anymore.

The departing planes were left stuck at the gates due to icing problems as well as the inclement weather on the East Coast.

The situation lasted for hours. Reports stated that planes got stuck on the tarmac for about one to four hours while they were waiting for the gates to finally open. Many of these planes had already been late getting to Chicago since winter storms in the Midwest and other weather-related problems were unbearable.

Dan Landon, Southwest Airlines spokesperson said that the last plane was fortunately moved to a gate by 3:30 a.m. adding that snacks and drinks were served to the passengers the entire time.

Because of Thursday night's backlog, the airlines decided to cancel all of its flights through Friday noon at Midway and simply resumed operations at midday.

Southwest Airlines operates more than 220 flights daily at Midway

The delay and cancellations led many passengers to complain. Many even questioned whether they could get a refund out of the incident since they weren't able to use the hotel rooms they booked earlier.

But no refunds were handed out to the passengers as of late. Landon simply voiced out his sincere apologies to their customers for the inconveniences.

"We are working to move forward and we're glad everyone is on the ground safely," he added.