The blizzard is just one reason behind the operational meltdown at Southwest Airlines

December 27, 2022?4:18 PM ET (Easter time)

By?JENNIFER LUDDEN?SCOTT NEUMAN

A flight board shows canceled flights at the Southwest Airlines terminal at Los Angeles International Airport on Monday.

Eugene Garcia/AP

The cliché about a "perfect storm" could hardly be a more apt description of the situation right now for Southwest Airlines — a carrier that has been forced to cancel more than 60% of its flights over the busy Christmas travel season as it struggles to get back on course after a devastating blizzard that socked in much of the United States.

在強(qiáng)烈的暴雪使得美國(guó)多數(shù)機(jī)場(chǎng)關(guān)閉后，西南航空仍在努力恢復(fù)航線。但在忙碌的圣誕旅行日下（晴空），西南航空卻取消了超過(guò)60%的飛行航班，顯然老一套的“巨大暴雪”原因,并不能夠進(jìn)一步解釋西南航空現(xiàn)在的情況.

sock?in??機(jī)場(chǎng)關(guān)閉

of?inclement?or?visibilityreducing?weather,?to?completely?enclose?someone,?something,?or?some?place,?especially?as?results?in?closure,?immobility,?or?inoperability.?Often?used?in?passive?constructions

While Southwest isn't the only airline to experience delays and cancellations, it is by far the worst-hit. More than?5,500 Southwest flights have been taken off departure boards?across the country in the last two days, compared to 311 cancellations for Delta, which had the second-most cancellations by a U.S. airline..

當(dāng)然，西南航空并不是唯一一個(gè)經(jīng)歷延遲和取消航線的航空公司，但卻是最糟糕嚴(yán)重的一個(gè)，全國(guó)各地的西南航空的航班表上被取消航班超過(guò)5500個(gè)，與之相對(duì)比的是美國(guó)第二大取消量的達(dá)美航空,331個(gè)航班。

take off 起飛 （拿下 取下）

1.?verb?Literally,?to?physically?remove?something?or?someone?from?someone,?oneself,?or?something?else.?In?this?usage,?a?noun?or?pronoun?can?be?used?between?"take"?and?"off."

4.?verb?To?rise?into?the?air?in?flight.

Analysts say Southwest's problems are the result of a confluence of events — not just the severe weather, but staff shortages caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as employees out sick with influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Most important?is an outdated computer system for crew scheduling that turned what would have been simply a challenging storm into a full-scale meltdown.

分析的人稱，西南問(wèn)題不只是單純惡劣天氣的問(wèn)題，而是多方因素匯聚共同導(dǎo)致的結(jié)果，除了因?yàn)樾鹿趯?dǎo)致的人員緊缺，同樣還有，因感染流感和呼吸道合胞病毒生病請(qǐng)假的員工。最重要的是過(guò)時(shí)的員工安排系統(tǒng)，這些因素使得單一的暴雪挑戰(zhàn)變成了全面崩潰。

"In short, everything possible has gone wrong for Southwest, including some problems of their own making," says Kyle Potter, executive editor of?Thrifty Traveler, a travel website. "At this point, we can very safely say that this is no longer a weather-related disturbance. We've had clear skies in the United States for several days now, more or less, and Southwest is the only airline that is failing so spectacularly here."

旅游網(wǎng)站（Thrifty Traveler）的執(zhí)行主編凱爾·波特（Kyle Potter）表示，簡(jiǎn)而言之，西南任何事情都可能出錯(cuò)，包括他們自己，在美國(guó)，我們現(xiàn)在至少有過(guò)多天的晴空，且西南是唯一一個(gè)失敗的如此徹底的航空公司。在這點(diǎn)上，我可以負(fù)責(zé)的說(shuō)，這已經(jīng)不再是天氣問(wèn)題。

That failure has attracted the attention of Congress. On Tuesday, Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, released a?statement?saying the committee would look into "the causes of these disruptions and its impact to customers."

周二，這個(gè)失敗事件，引起了國(guó)會(huì)的注意。華盛頓州，參議院商業(yè)，科學(xué)和運(yùn)輸委員會(huì)主席，參議員Maria Cantwell發(fā)布聲明稱，委員會(huì)將調(diào)查“這次中斷的原因及其對(duì)客戶的影響。

For Southwest passenger Taylor McClain, 34, the saga started last Thursday, when his morning flight from Salt Lake City into Chicago Midway was canceled. He rebooked for a 3 p.m. that didn't end up departing until 9 p.m.

34歲的西南航空乘客,泰勒·麥克萊恩（Taylor McClain）上周四經(jīng)歷了一連串事件，他早上從鹽湖城飛往芝加哥中途島的航班被取消。于是他重新預(yù)訂了下午3點(diǎn)的航班，但直到晚上9點(diǎn)才離開。

McClain's return to Utah has been even more harrowing. He was scheduled to leave Chicago late Monday. It was canceled. Now, the soonest he's been able to reschedule is for Thursday night.

麥克萊恩返回猶他州的過(guò)程更加折磨人。他原定于周一晚些時(shí)候離開芝加哥。但被取消了。現(xiàn)在，他能最快重新安排的時(shí)間是在周四晚上。

At least he's lucky to be with his parents, but "I will burn multiple days of unplanned vacation and absorb four days worth of extra kennel fees for the dog I can't get back to," he says.

至少他幸運(yùn)的和他的父母在一起，但他將浪費(fèi)很多天在意外的假期上，并且不得不花費(fèi)額外的四天照顧費(fèi)為了無(wú)法回去照顧他的狗。

"It was awful. It really was," McClain says, adding that he feels bad for fellow Southwest passengers who face even worse predicaments.

麥克萊恩說(shuō)，這真的非常糟心，并為其他面對(duì)更加困難處境的西南乘客感到難過(guò)。

He says he's flown Southwest for the past decade, but he will wait and see how the company makes him whole before deciding to fly with the airline again

他說(shuō)在過(guò)去的十年里他一直乘坐西南航空，但現(xiàn)在，在他決定乘坐西南航班之前，他將關(guān)注并等待這家公司做出怎樣的大革新。

End

眾說(shuō)紛紜，不過(guò)我影響最深刻的是?hub and spoke system?

說(shuō)是西南航空在點(diǎn)對(duì)點(diǎn)的模式下運(yùn)行但不如輪輻模式有優(yōu)勢(shì)，新聞還有一些可以去npr觀看?？偟膩?lái)說(shuō)，在圣誕節(jié)這么大的節(jié)日下真是一件非常糟心的事情。